Get A Clue Club
by Scoobyfan1
Summary: What would happen if the chracters from one of Hanna Barbera's other mystery solving shows from the 1970's had to track down the 13 Ghosts from the Demon Chest instead of Scooby and the gang? Read on and find out for yourself.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: The Clue Club and all related characters and trademarks as well as all characters from the Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo are copyright 2009 Hanna-Barbera Productions/Cartoon Network/Boomerang/Warner Brothers Animation, all original characters in this story are copyright, well to me. I am not making any money from writing this, nor do I plan to, I'm just writing it for fun. I got the idea for this story from the Hanna-Barbera Productions cartoon series "13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo".

Author's Notes #2: Also, the idea for this fan fic came about after reading a story on Fan called The Thirteen Ghosts of Prue Halliwell by Theodore Hawkwood which combined the characters from the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, the TV series Charmed and the video game Kingdom Of Hearts. After reading it I thought it would make a good Fan Fiction idea, only with different characters from a different show, so after much thought I decided to do the story with the characters from the 1976 Hanna-Barbera Productions produced cartoon series Clue Club which was similar in style of Scooby Doo. Thanks to fellow Scooby Doo fan and member of Deviant Art and the Velma Dinkley Yahoo Group Jaguaro for the title suggestion, I greatly appreciated your idea.

Chapter 1

Outside of an old decrepit looking mansion somewhere in the Southwestern United States, a black hooded figure stands in the shadows; the figure looks around and has a somewhat relieved look on his face, after which he walks up to the door of the mansion and opens it; the man then walks through the house thinking, or possibly looking for something, he then makes his way through the mansion and heads downstairs towards the basement of the house, he opens the large wooden door and walks into the dark dusty cobweb filled room.

He next makes his way towards a large safe at the back of the room, next he enters the combination and unlocks the safe; the figure then reaches into the steel container and pulls out a sinister looking red and gray box with a stone lid, he then places the box on a stone pedestal in the middle of the room and rubs his hands together in the way that someone would if they were looking forward to something; the figure then sets up a few miscellaneous items around the room and then departs the basement.

He then smiles and chuckles to himself as he leaves the basement, next he walks upstairs and heads through the house, afterwards the figure then walks through the door leaving it unlocked and gets in a small black automobile, he starts it up and drives away, as the figure drives away he turns on the radio and relaxes; the large mansion is calm at the present but soon four children and two bloodhounds will enter the house and become involved in one of the biggest mysteries of their lives.

Inside the garage of a small suburban house which doubles as the unofficial clubhouse and headquarters of the group of teenage detectives known as the Clue Club; Larry one of the male members of the group and the unofficial leader of the agency looks over the shoulder of Dottie, one of the female members of the agency and the youngest of the four human members of the group as she works on a small gadget with a screwdriver.

"So Dottie, what are you up to?" Larry asked.

"Oh not much, just fiddling with one of the wrist communicators" Dottie responded.

"Why?" Pepper asked looking confused.

"Well, I've figured out a way to improve the reception of the communicators in buildings and other structures" Dottie replied.

"Wow, so they'll work better when we're investigating indoors just as well as they do outdoors?" D.D. asked.

"Sure will" Dottie responded.

"Cool, it'll sure help us when we have to solve another mystery" Larry replied.

The ringing of a nearby telephone interrupts the Clue Club's conversation however; Larry walks over to the ringing phone and answers it.

"Clue Club, Larry speaking how can we help you?" he answered.

"Larry?" asked a voice over the phone.

"Yes this is he" Larry replied.

"This is Sheriff Bagley" the voice answered.

"Oh hi sheriff, what's up?" Larry asked.

"Well Larry I may have a case for you and the rest of you Clue Clubbers" Sheriff Bagley replied.

"Like what?" Larry wondered.

"Well it's kind of unusual" Sheriff Bagley replied.

"Whatever it is sheriff I'm sure we can handle it; by the way would it be alright if I put you on speakerphone so the rest of the gang can hear you?" Larry asked.

"Go right ahead Larry" Sheriff Bagley replied.

Larry walked over to the phone and flipped a small switch on the phone to the on position.

"OK Sheriff you're on speakerphone now so go ahead" Larry remarked.

"Well as I said before the case is an unusual one in this regard, I'm sure you Clue Clubbers remember the old mansion on the outskirts of town" Sheriff Bagley commented.

"Sure I remember it" Dottie commented.

"To be exact it's the old Primrose estate and no one has lived there for over fifteen years" Sheriff Bagley explained.

"Hmm, if no one's lived there for fifteen years than why would there be a mystery there?" D.D. wondered aloud.

"Good question D.D. and I can tell you exactly what's been going on there; for the past six months there has been some strange things happening in that area, also for the last few days we've had reports of break-ins at the mansion" Sheriff Bagley continued.

"But what's strange about a break-in?" Larry asked.

"The strange part is the reports said that nothing was taken from the place and that apparently someone was in the house moving something around or looking for something" Sheriff Bagley remarked.

"That is pretty strange" Pepper remarked.

"Yeah why would anybody break into a house and not steal anything" Dottie added.

"Beats me gang but I think we do have a mystery on our hands, Sheriff Bagley we'll gladly take the case" Larry commented.

"Terrific, how long do you think it will take you to get out there?" Sheriff Bagley asked.

"About 10 minutes, by the way are you at the mansion currently sheriff?" Larry asked.

"Sure am, I'll be looking forward to seeing all of you" Sheriff Bagley said.

"Right Sheriff, we'll be there before you can say Mystery Solved" Larry replied; with that the brown haired teen sleuth hung up the telephone as he and the rest of the gang discussed their newest mystery and how they were going to go about solving it.

"Larry, do you really think we can solve this mystery? I mean it sure sounds like a pretty difficult case to me" Pepper asked.

"Of course we can Pepper, besides we've handled tougher cases then this one" Larry replied.

"Yeah Pepper; you know, I actually don't think this case sounds all that difficult, it sounds like a simple investigation of a break in to me" D.D. commented.

But unbeknownst to D.D., he would be quite wrong as the Clue Club was about to embark on the first step of undoubtedly the most difficult and possibly most dangerous case of their careers.

So after being told the details of their newest case, Larry, Pepper, D.D., Dottie, Woofer and Wimper all piled into the Clue Car and headed for the Primrose Mansion at the outskirts of town.

After driving for some time the Clue Club arrived outside of the gothic looking house; as they arrived Larry could see that Sheriff Bagley's police car was still parked outside.

The gang exited their vehicle and walked over to meet the Sheriff, who unlike the previous times they had seen each other, was actually quite happy to see the teenage sleuths and their canines.

"Hi Sheriff Bagley" Larry said greeting their friend.

"Oh, hi Larry" Sheriff Bagley replied.

"So this is where the break-ins happened?" Larry asked.

"Yep, this is the place" Sheriff Bagley replied.

"So what do we do now?" D.D. asked.

"What else, get inside the mansion and look for clues" Larry replied.

"Good idea Larry, come on let's get going" Sheriff Bagley commented.

With that Larry, Pepper, D.D., Dottie, Woofer and Wimper, along with Sheriff Bagley started towards the front entrance to the immense mansion; however as the mansion came into view, one of the sleuths, specifically the bespectacled member of the group became quite nervous.

The Primrose Mansion consisted of two floors, with large stone statues which looked to be gargoyles atop the roof and a series of columns attached to the roof of the house; overall the mansion looked like the typical kind of place that you would find in stories or films about ghosts or other supernatural beings or creatures, at first glance it would also seem to be similar to a house that belonged in Victorian England or Transylvania and not in the Southwest United States.

As the group of teenage sleuths and their canines walked up to the door it became apparent that one of the members of the group did not want to enter the estate at all and it was also apparent that this person didn't want anything to do with the mansion whatsoever.

"That's the mansion?" D.D. asked.

"Yep, that's the place" Sheriff Bagley commented.

"It certainly is a big place" Pepper replied.

"Yeah, big and creepy, not to mention it reminds me of one of Count Dracula's summer houses; do we really have to go in there?" D.D. asked.

"Yes we do, you chicken" Pepper replied scolding him.

"Right, come in gang, let's go inside" Larry explained.

With that Larry rang the doorbell of the mysterious mansion, which sounded like the sounds of several ghosts moaning; while this was going on D.D. quickly scrambled behind Pepper and decided to cower behind the blonde teenager.

"What's the matter Sherlock Chicken?" Pepper asked.

"Th-th-that doorbell! It sounds like something from a nightmare I had once, only worse" D.D. replied nervously.

"You know D.D. there's nothing really to be afraid of, some people have unusual doorbells, some people don't, it's not really anything to be worried about" Larry explained.

"Yeah I know; but the question is, does whoever or whatever's inside that creepy place know that too?" the light brown haired teen replied with a troubled look on his face.

"D.D. I'm sure whoever or whatever's inside probably doesn't care about us, or doesn't care that we're visiting; now let's just get inside and look for clues" Pepper commented.

"She's right, now come on gang let's head inside and start our investigation" Larry explained.

With that Larry, D.D., Pepper, Dottie, Woofer and Wimper entered the living room/foyer of the mysterious gothic looking mansion; the Primrose estate's living room featured a dark brown sofa in a corner of the room, six or seven large armchairs, rocking chairs along with a couple dozen paintings and other pieces of artwork which adorned the hallways and walls of the combination foyer and living room.

The group of teenage sleuths and their canine members, now minus their friend in law enforcement who explained to them that he needed to return to his office were keeping their eyes peeled for anything strange or unusual, of course in a mansion like the one that the Clue Club were currently inside, you never knew when something like that would happen.

After a few moments inside the foyer it became clear to the four youngsters and their bloodhounds that the mansion's size was going to be a problem when it came down to looking for clues to the mystery that had been presented to them, a fact that was confirmed as the blonde female member of the group spoke up.

"Larry, this mansion is so big, how on earth are we ever going to find any clues?" Pepper wondered aloud.

"Simple, we split up; that way we can cover more ground" Larry explained.

"I guess that's a good idea" D.D. replied.

"OK, Dottie, Woofer, Wimper and I will search the upstairs and Pepper, you and D.D. search the downstairs and the grounds, and make sure to check everything, got it?" Larry explained.

"S-sure come on Pepper" D.D. said with a trembling sound to his voice.

With that the trembling, cowering bespectacled investigator followed his female companion down a nearby hallway and out of sight of the rest of the Clue Club as Larry, Dottie and the two bloodhounds prepared to search the upstairs portion of the estate.

"Well short stuff, I guess we better get started" Larry remarked.

"Yeah, you're right, come on Woofer and Wimper" Dottie replied as she motioned for the two canines of the group to follow behind her and Larry.

The two young investigators along with their bloodhounds walked towards a large winding staircase which was to the left of the group as they surveyed the room; after a few seconds the four sleuths, both human and canine began walking up the staircase, however even for the youngest member of the group in Dottie, walking up this staircase felt like running a marathon as she, Larry, Woofer and Whimper counted the steps in their minds, which at the moment might have well numbered hundreds or thousands.

"Larry?" Dottie asked while attempting to catch her breath.

"What Dottie?" Larry replied.

"I think, I think whoever built this house must have been a big exercise freak, because it feels like we've walked across the equivalent of from Seattle, Washington to New York" Dottie explained, feeling somewhat winded.

"I hate to say it Dottie, but I think you're right" Larry replied feeling equally winded.

"I'm with them Woofer, my paws are on fire right now" Wimper commented.

"Oh don't be such a cry baby; it's not that bad; besides you don't hear me complaining do you?" Woofer asked.

"No, I guess not" Whimper commented.

"See, that's what separates us: you're always complaining and I am built like an athlete, I never get tired and I never complain" Woofer replied.

"Yeah, sure you don't" Wimper commented.

"Oh, never mind!" Woofer said somewhat impatiently.

After walking for what seemed like several years Dottie, Larry, Woofer and Whimper discovered that they had found their way up the stairs and had arrived in a hallway on the second floor of the mansion.

"Phew, am I glad we made it" Dottie commented.

"Yeah me too, now we can start really looking for clues as to why there have been so many break ins at this house" Larry replied.

With that the two adolescent investigators began walking down the main hall of the upstairs portion of the estate with the group's two bloodhounds in tow and close behind; however after a few minutes the group noticed a black haired man wearing a dark grey shirt, brown slacks and black shoes coming out of a room on the right side of the hallway; Larry, the unofficial leader of the group happened to notice the man coming out of the room and despite the fact that along with Dottie, Woofer and Wimper had just walked up a large staircase a few minutes ago and was still a little winded, decided to do what any red blooded American teenager would do in a situation like this.

"Hey there's somebody in there, come on gang after him!" Larry remarked.

The Clue Club then went sprinting towards the figure and attempted to capture him; the teenage sleuths ended up following him into a small room at the end of the hall, after that Larry went right at the man and ending up tackling the figure to the ground.

"Hey, what's going on here?" the figure asked with a grumble.

"We were just about to ask you the same question" Larry remarked.

"Well first I wouldn't mind knowing who tackled me to the ground" the man asked.

"Oh sorry about that, my name's Larry, this is Dottie and these are our bloodhounds: Woofer and Wimper, the other two members of our group D.D. and Pepper are around here somewhere" Larry explained.

"Group?" the man asked.

"Yes, we're a detective agency, we solve mysteries for a living" Larry explained.

"How interesting; you know you kids just may be able to help me out" the man replied.

"Oh, how so and exactly who are you?" Larry asked.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Stephen Brown, maybe you've heard of me; I'm an expert in the supernatural and the occult, I study ghosts, ghouls, specters, vampires, witches, monsters and anything else that's involved with the paranormal or supernatural" the man explained.

"Of course I've heard of you, you're one of the world's most foremost experts in your field" Dottie replied.

"Why thank you young lady, it's good to know I have fans that are of a younger age" Mr. Brown remarked

"Mr. Brown exactly what are you doing here inside this mansion?" Larry asked curiously.

"Yes, Sheriff Bagley mentioned that there have been numerous break-ins reported here and that no one has lived here for almost fifteen years" Dottie remarked.

"Oh yes, that; well you see I live in a refurbished castle about fifty miles from here which was imported stone by stone from Europe, that is where I do most of my work involving the supernatural and the occult, for the past few months now I have been monitoring my spectral locating equipment and I have noticed that there is a large amount of spectral activity coming from this very area" Mr. Brown explained.

"And all of that activity has been coming from this mansion correct?" Dottie asked.

"Yes young lady, you are correct" Mr. Brown replied.

"I figured as much" Dottie remarked.

"Mr. Brown, I'm a bit skeptical when it comes to ghosts and the supernatural; now I'm not saying I believe all of this but if I did, what kind of activity are we talking about?" Larry asked.

"I'm not entirely sure myself Larry, but I believe that someone or something has been moving around in the mansion and I also believe that someone or something is looking for the Chest of Demons" Mr. Brown explained.

"Chest of Demons? that sounds kinda creepy" Wimper remarked.

"What's so scary about an old chest?" Woofer said asking his fellow bloodhound.

"Well, anything with a name like that seems scary to me" Wimper replied.

"Oh it's just your imagination Wimp old buddy" Woofer remarked.

"Mr. Brown, what exactly is this Chest of Demons?" Larry asked.

"Well you see the story of the chest is a bit of an old one which began many years ago; the owners and most recent inhabitants of this mansion were Jonathan and Laura Primrose, they were married for fifty years and spent most of their lives traveling the world; I guess you could call them modern day adventurers and one of their last ones which took place when they were in their seventies was traveling the globe to track down and capture the thirteen foulest ghosts, specters and phantoms in the world; once they finished their travels they locked the thirteen ghosts in the Chest of Demons and brought the chest here to this house, then they hid the chest somewhere in this house where it would stay for all eternity" Mr. Brown explained.

"Interesting, what happened after that?" Larry asked.

"However soon after that the ghosts from the chest placed a curse on Mr. And Mrs. Primrose and this mansion, for the next few months the Primroses were scared out of their wits as all manner of ghosts, demons, monsters and phantoms began haunting the estate; Mr. And Mrs. Primrose were quite perplexed by this and had no idea what to do to stop the hauntings, however they were unable to do so; for you see one night the couple stood at the top of the stairs and prepared to walk down into the kitchen to have a late snack but they did not get there, because two strange black shadowy figures appeared; the couple gasped at them and slowly walked backwards, but as they did so they tumbled down the stairs and after falling down the stairs they both became unconscious; the pair remained there for some time before the local authorities found them, as you might imagine the two of them were pronounced dead, if I recall correctly the couple's injuries is what killed them, mainly because their bones were broken and they suffered major brain injuries, which would have made them brain dead had they survived" Mr. Brown continued.

"Oh, how horrible" Dottie remarked with a gasp, considering she was only fourteen what Mr. Brown just told her and the rest of the Clue Club might just have been the most gruesome or frightening thing she had ever heard, although considering what she and her friends were in the midst of doing, more frightening things were to come in the future.

"Yes, as you might imagine it was quite a sensational story and was reported in various TV and radio newscasts around the country and the world as well as various newspapers for several weeks after it happened" Mr. Brown explained.

"Why would someone be looking for this chest, Mr. Brown?" Larry asked.

"Simple, whoever or whatever has been looking for the Chest of Demons knows that if it ever fell into the wrong hands those ghosts that were locked in the chest would be free to wreak havoc and destruction all over the world" Mr. Brown replied.

"Ah I get it, so that's why you came here: to make sure the chest is protected and to make sure that someone or something doesn't open the box, thereby setting the ghosts free" Dottie remarked.

"Yes that's correct, now while I understand that you kids don't believe in the supernatural and things of that nature I was hoping that you would help me make sure that the chest doesn't fall into the wrong hands" Mr. Brown remarked.

"Did you hear that Whimp old buddy, a famous expert in the supernatural needs our help" Woofer whispered to his fellow bloodhound.

"Do we have to?" Wimper asked.

"Why of course we have to, besides think of what could happen if we succeed; we'll be heroes old buddy, people will remember us for years to come, so what do you say Whimper let's help the guy" Woofer explained.

"I guess you're right, I would sure like being a hero" Whimper replied.

"See I told you so" Woofer commented.

"Mr. Brown, supernatural type mysteries aren't really our forte; you know there's a famous group of teenage detectives we know that could help you out" Larry commented.

"I know who you're talking about Larry, however I think it would be better if the Clue Club assisted me" Mr. Brown replied.

"We'll certainly think about it Mr. Brown" Larry remarked.

Larry walked over to where Dottie was standing and was joined by Woofer and Whimper; the two sleuths and the two canines began discussing their present situation.

"Well Larry, what do you think?" Dottie remarked with a whisper.

"Hmm, well part of me has always wanted to follow in the footsteps of Scooby Doo and his friends, after all if it weren't for all of them we might not be here right now; plus it'll be a new challenge for all of us" Larry commented.

"And now that I'm old enough to join you guys, I can go along with all of you to solve mysteries" Dottie replied.

"True, I think we should help Mr. Brown out; what do you think Dottie?" Larry asked.

"Sure, it sounds like fun to me" Dottie responded.

"What about you Woofer and Whimper?" Larry asked.

"Ruff, Ruff" barked the two bloodhounds in agreement.

"OK then it's all settled, we'll assist Mr. Brown in tracking down the Chest of Demons" Larry commented.

Larry and Dottie along with Woofer and Whimper walked back over to where their friend was standing.

"Mr. Brown we've thought it over and we would be more than happy to help you recover the chest" Larry explained.

"I just want to thank you kids and your dogs for offering to assist me; I assure you all your participation is greatly appreciated" Mr. Brown commented.

"You're welcome Mr. Brown and don't worry, with us on the job those so-called ghosts won't be bothering anyone" Larry remarked.

At this moment the combination wrist watch/communicator that Larry was wearing began beeping.

"Looks like somebody wants to talk to us" Larry said.

The teenage investigator then pushed a button and the small screen on the watch lit up, on it was none other than Sheriff Bagley.

"Hello sheriff, what's up?" Larry asked.

"Hi Larry; listen I'm back at the police station now, did you kids find out who's responsible for the break-ins?" Sheriff Bagley asked.

"Sure did, I'll even let you talk to him" Larry remarked.

"Hmm, alright put him on" Sheriff Bagley replied.

"Mr. Brown, our friend Sheriff Bagley wants to speak with you" Larry said.

"Very well" Mr. Brown replied.

"Hello, is this the person who was responsible for the break-ins?" Sheriff Bagley asked.

"Yes, my name is Stephen Brown and I was explaining to the Clue Club I broke into the mansion to make sure that no one stole the Chest of Demons" Mr. Brown replied.

"What is this Chest of Demons and why did you break in to stop some one from stealing it?" Sheriff Bagley asked.

"Very simple, I came here to make sure that it did not fall into the wrong hands; because if it does the entire world will be in significant danger" Mr. Brown explained.

"Hmm, from your description I would say that this chest is quite important" Sheriff Bagley commented.

"It is sheriff, and I have hired the Clue Club to protect it and make sure that no one opens it" Mr. Brown replied.

"That's good, all of them are very good at solving mysteries and I know that they will do a great job with this one" Sheriff Bagley remarked.

"Thank You Sheriff, I greatly appreciate your assistance" Mr. Brown replied.

"Now Mr. Brown, even though what you did was breaking and entering, technically I cannot arrest you because you didn't steal anything; also I looked up your information on the computer here at the station and this is your first offense, so no harm done and no hard feelings sir" Sheriff Bagley commented.

"You're quite welcome Sheriff" Mr. Brown responded.

"Larry, hopefully you and your friends will be successful in your case and I hope that you will let me know of your exploits, OK?" Sheriff Bagley asked.

"Sure will Sheriff and thanks" Larry replied.

Larry switched off his wristwatch and prepared to speak with their newfound friend once more.

"I have plenty of electronic devices that I use for tracking the supernatural, but I have never seen something like that before, what is it?" Mr. Brown asked curious.

"Oh that, it's a special wristwatch communicator that I developed; we all have them plus they come quite in handy" Dottie explained.

"That is quite remarkable, I'm very impressed; tell me something young lady, did you really invent those?" Mr. Brown asked addressing Dottie.

"Sure did; I also helped build the radio equipment in the clubhouse, the computer screen in the Clue Car as well as a few other devices" Dottie explained.

"Wow that's quite impressive, and to think all that talent came from a young girl" Mr. Brown remarked.

"Hey I am fourteen after all" Dottie replied.

"That's true, and you've been a great help to all of us in the past and you will be in the future too" Larry said.

"Aw, thanks Larry" Dottie responded, as her cheeks began to turn a bright shade of crimson.

"Well since all that's settled, I think we better get started in finding the Chest of Demons" Larry remarked.

"Right, except for one thing" Mr. Brown replied.

"What's that?" Dottie wondered.

"We don't have any idea where the chest is" Larry commented.

"Well, there are a lot of rooms up here; let's start searching each of them" Mr. Brown explained.

"Good idea Mr. Brown; Woofer, you and Whimper search half the rooms while Dottie, Mr. Brown and myself will check the other half" Larry explained.

"Arf Arf" Woofer and Whimper said barking in agreement.

With that the two pairs of sleuths began walking in different directions to start their respective searches.

Meanwhile down in the basement of the old mansion Pepper and D.D. were searching around and weren't having much luck finding any clues.

"Pepper" D.D. remarked.

"What is it D.D.?" Pepper asked.

"What exactly are we looking for" D.D. replied.

"I'm not really sure, I would guess that we're looking for any kind of clue that would help us figure out what's going on around here" Pepper remarked.

"There's just one thing, if we find anything how will we know if it's a clue or not?" D.D. wondered.

"If we do find anything and it is a clue I'll let you know" Pepper replied.

The two detectives continued their search on opposite sides of the basement; Pepper was looking through an old trunk in the corner of the room when she called out to D.D.

"Hey D.D. come on over here I think I found something" Pepper remarked.

"Coming" D.D. replied.

Unseen to both of them a strange white luminous figure materialized behind Pepper.

"What did you find Pepper?" D.D. asked.

"I think it's some kind of family history or something similar" Pepper said leafing through the book.

"Looks like it to me, there's pictures of the family and a bunch of other stuff; according to this, the name of the family that used to live here was Primrose, although I guess that's why the mansion is called Primrose Mansion" D.D. replied.

"What a weird name for a family" Pepper commented.

"Why's that?" D.D. asked.

"I don't know, it just sounds creepy to me" Pepper replied.

"Doesn't sound creepy to me, and believe me I know creepy" D.D. commented.

"Just because you've watched a lot of old horror movies, that doesn't mean you know what's scary and what's not scary" Pepper replied.

"That's not it at all" D.D. remarked.

"OK, then what is it?" Pepper asked.

"Well, ok maybe it was what you said" D.D. commented.

"I thought so, now come on let's look for some more clues" Pepper remarked.

While D.D. and Pepper continued to look through the basement the strange figure remained behind them, however the two sleuths were still unaware that another presence was in the room with them; the figure slowly approached Pepper and stood in silence.

D.D. was searching for clues on one side of the room when he looked over to where Pepper was and gasped as he saw the figure standing behind her.

"P-Pepper!" D.D. said nervously.

"What is it D.D., can't you see I'm looking for clues" Pepper replied.

"L-look behind you!" D.D. commented.

"Look at what?" Pepper asked.

D.D. didn't answer, he just pointed at the spot where she was standing; Pepper looked behind her and gasped at ghostly figure that was staring her right in the face.

"Wh-who are you?" Pepper asked.

The figure did not answer, it simply continued to stand in front of Pepper; the strange transparent creature started to glow a pale shade of white and even though the room was for the most part dark the dreary basement was instantly illuminated by the figure's radiance.

"Pepper, I don't think it heard you" D.D. remarked.

"I know it heard me but just in case it didn't" Pepper replied.

"Let's get out of here!" D.D. exclaimed.

"Right!" Pepper replied.

The two of them ran out of the room just as fast as their feet could carry them; unfortunately the figure went through the door and followed right behind them.

"Jeez Louise, doesn't that creep believe in using doors?" Pepper remarked trying to catch her breath.

"Pepper, as some one once said: ours is not to reason why, ours is just to say goodbye!" D.D. exclaimed.

"I couldn't have said it any better myself, now let's get going" Pepper replied.

The two of them then continued running down the hallway trying to escape the strange luminous figure that was still following them; the pair of detectives made their way through the hallway running in and out of various doors with the strange creature nipping at their heels.

"That creep is still following us Pepper" D.D. remarked still trying to catch his breath.

"I'm aware of that D.D., we just have to figure out a plan to outwit that creep once and for all" Pepper replied.

"Like what?" D.D. asked.

"I don't know, but first we've got to find a safe place to hide" Pepper replied.

"Good idea" D.D. responded.

The two of them tried to find a place where they could discuss a plan without being scared out of their wits; after running for a few more minutes D.D. and Pepper found a door at the end of the hallway and quickly went inside.

Pepper made sure that she and D.D. were inside the room before closing the door shut, hopefully locking the ghostly figure outside.

"Phew am I glad we're finally safe" Pepper remarked.

"I second that, but there's one thing that puzzles me" D.D. replied.

"What's that?" Pepper asked.

"Why did that ghost pop up when we were in the basement?" D.D. replied.

"Beats me, I just wish I knew why it was haunting us" Pepper replied.

"I have a theory, but I don't think you'll like it" D.D. remarked.

"Depends on what it is" Pepper replied.

"Well my theory is this: I think that so-called ghost knew that we were going to be in the basement and tried to scare us away from there" D.D. explained.

"But why, and for what reason?" Pepper replied.

"There must be something in that basement that the ghost doesn't want anybody to see" D.D. remarked.

"Like what?" Pepper wondered.

"I don't know, but I do have a plan to figure out what it is" D.D. remarked.

"OK D.D. what's your plan?" Pepper asked.

"Simple, we go back down the hallway, get into the basement and see exactly what that creature was trying to hide" D.D. explained.

"That's actually a good plan D.D., come on let's go" Pepper replied.

D.D. and Pepper opened the door and walked back into the hallway, after a few seconds D.D. noticed that the two investigators had some company.

"D.D.?" Pepper asked.

"Yes?" D.D. replied.

"I know you're here, and you know I'm here right?" Pepper remarked.

"Sure" D.D. replied.

"Well if that's true I think there's an extra person in here; look at the floor, there's another shadow" Pepper replied nervously.

D.D. looked behind them and saw the strange luminous figure standing right behind them.

"Yipes, let's split!" D.D. shrieked.

"Right!" Pepper replied.

D.D. and Pepper ran back down the hallway hoping to avoid the strange creature; they were successful for a while before it started chasing them once again.

After a few minutes they found themselves back in the basement, the two teenage sleuths took a deep breath as they found themselves temporarily safe from harm.

Back upstairs, Woofer and Wimper were in the midst of searching a hallway but were not having much luck in finding the chest.

"Woofer?" Whimper commented.

"What is it Whimp old buddy?" Woofer replied.

"So what exactly are we looking for anyway?" Whimper remarked.

"The Chest of Demons Whimper old boy, the Chest!" Woofer declared.

"Oh yeah, I just wish we were looking for a juicy bone instead of some musty old chest" Whimper replied.

"Yeah, me too; but maybe if we find this chest we'll get rewarded with all the bones we can eat" Woofer said.

"That would sure be nice" Whimper replied.

"Yeah it sure would be, I can just smell them now; wait a minute, that's not bones, you know what I think I smell Pepper and D.D." Woofer said sniffing the floor.

"Maybe we better let Larry know what we found" Whimper replied.

"Good idea boy" Woofer remarked.

The white bloodhound with black spots and red hat began barking up a storm to try and alert his human friends to his position; finally Larry heard this and headed over to where Woofer and Whimper were standing.

"What is it Larry?" Dottie asked.

"I think Woofer may have found something" Larry replied.

"It might just be the Chest of Demons, at least I hope it is" Mr. Brown commented.

"There's only one way to find out; come on, follow the dogs!" Larry exclaimed.

As Larry, Mr. Brown and Dottie followed the two bloodhounds; in the basement D.D. and Pepper were continuing to search for whatever their ghostly pursuer was trying to hide from them.

Finally Pepper made her way into the middle of the dark dreary room and found something large and made of stone, or rather ran into something made of stone.

"Ouch!" Pepper groaned.

"What is it Pepper?" D.D. asked.

"I think I found something" Pepper remarked as she rubbed her now sore leg.

"What is it?" D.D. replied.

"I don't know" Pepper responded.

The two of them looked confused at what they had found and what Pepper had walked into; finally a proverbial light bulb went off above his head.

"I've got it! This is a stone pedestal" D.D. exclaimed.

"Pedestal?" Pepper asked with a confused look on her face.

"Yeah, people usually put important documents or items on them; and by the looks of this one, there's some kind of stone box on top of it" D.D. explained.

"OK genius, how did you know what that thing was anyway?" Pepper said crossing her arms and looking quite impatient.

"Dottie told me about it once" D.D. explained.

"Huh, it figures" Pepper replied.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" D.D. asked.

"Never mind, let's just open the box and find out what's inside" Pepper replied.

"Good idea Pepper" D.D. said as he started to open the lid.

"Do you need help with that?" Pepper asked.

"What makes you think I need help with this?" D.D. remarked.

"Because that looks like its pretty heavy" Pepper replied.

"Oh, ok; come on over and help me" D.D. said.

"I would be delighted" Pepper replied.

With that the blonde haired detective went over to the sinister looking box and assisted her mystery-solving friend.

However at that exact moment Larry, Mr. Brown, Dottie, Woofer and Wimper arrived at the door, next they opened it and walked inside the basement; but once he was inside Mr. Brown looked over at D.D. and Pepper and became shocked at what he saw.

"The Chest of Demons! There it is!" Mr. Brown exclaimed.

"You mean that's the Chest of Demons?" Dottie asked.

"Yes!" Mr. Brown exclaimed.

"D.D., Pepper, whatever you do, do not open that box!" Larry remarked.

"What? We can't hear you, what did you say Larry?" D.D. asked.

"Oh, never mind I'll just ask you after Pepper and I open this old chest" he added.

"No, don't!" Mr. Brown yelled.

Larry, Mr. Brown, Dottie, Woofer and Whimper tried calling over to their friends to make sure they wouldn't open the chest but alas, it was to no avail and together D.D. and Pepper opened the Chest of Demons.

With the box opened, the ghosts that were trapped inside escaped then floated up the stairs and out the door into the atmosphere; while they had solved many mysteries over the years, nothing could prepare the Clue Club for what was going on at the present time inside the dark and creepy basement of the old Primrose Mansion.

"Hey what's going on?" D.D. wondered aloud.

"Yeah, something tells me that this box isn't any ordinary box" Pepper added.

"You would be correct my dear, also you two will be happy to learn that you just opened the Chest of Demons and let the thirteen most frightening and terrifying ghosts in the world loose!" Mr. Brown yelled.

"Ghosts? yipes!" D.D. shrieked.

"It can't be, the box didn't look that evil" Pepper replied.

"Well, it did and it was" Mr. Brown explained.

"You're kidding" D.D. remarked with a chuckle.

"For once I'm with D.D., there's no way that the thirteen most evil ghosts on the planet were locked inside that chest" Pepper replied.

"Well they were and this is no laughing matter young man; now those ghosts are going to haunt the Earth until they are all captured and put back in the Chest of Demons and it's all your fault" Mr. Brown remarked pointing to D.D. and Pepper.

"Why is it our fault?" Pepper asked.

"Because you let them all out" Mr. Brown replied.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that" D.D. responded.

"Don't worry about it guys, everybody makes mistakes and you two are no different" Larry remarked.

"Thanks Larry" D.D. replied.

"No problem D.D." Larry responded.

"Well, I guess we better get started on tracking down those thirteen ghosts huh?" D.D. remarked.

"Correct, and you'll need my help in catching them" Mr. Brown replied.

"Cool, this will be so exciting; tracking down real life spirits and making sure they get recaptured" Dottie remarked.

"Yes and you'll need these" Mr. Brown said handing D.D. a Crystal Ball and the Chest of Demons.

"What are these for?" D.D. asked.

"Well, the Crystal Ball is for contacting me when you kids need to talk to me and the Chest of Demons is obvious, it's for trapping those ghosts when you catch them" Mr. Brown explained.

"Cool, and since I'm old enough now I can go along with you guys" Dottie remarked.

"Right sis, plus in this case even if you weren't old enough to join us you would still get to come with us" Pepper replied.

"How come?" Dottie asked.

"Because with the thirteen most horrible ghosts in the world running around, you would be a lot safer with us than at home; after all if you were back at the club house, I would be afraid that one of the ghosts might try and capture you" Pepper explained.

"Thanks, you know you're the best older sister a girl ever had" Dottie replied.

"You're welcome Dottie, and you're the best younger sister a girl ever had" Pepper responded.

"I think we better get going gang" Larry remarked.

"Yeah, we should really get started searching for those spooks" Pepper replied.

"Good luck in tracking down the thirteen ghosts kids and be careful" Mr. Brown commented.

"We will sir and thank you for hiring us" D.D. replied.

With that the mystery solving teenagers and their two bloodhounds walked over to the Clue Car, got in and buckled their seatbelts; Larry started up the vehicle as it drove out of sight and into the horizon as the Clue Club prepared to tackle the biggest mystery of their careers.

Author's Notes: I have to admit that the Mr. Brown character was greatly based on the character Vincent Van Ghoul from the series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, basically right down to the being a paranormal/supernatural expert and communicating with the Clue Club via Crystal Ball, he was also based at least a little bit on the horror writer Stephen King as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We find the Clue Car with Larry as usual at the wheel making its way through a spooky looking, dark, dismal forest, at the moment the group of teenage sleuths and their pair of bloodhounds are traveling along a desolate looking road flanked by several dozen trees with broken limbs and branches; as if that weren't enough, a number of owls were perched atop the broken trees and were watching the vehicle somewhat intently, which gave the group of detectives the impression that they were being watched by vultures and not by owls, while the yellow automobile drove through the forest the vehicle's passengers were becoming increasingly aware that the portion of the country they were driving through wasn't necessarily somewhere that they wanted to be at the moment.

"Larry, I'm wondering about something," D.D. asked.

"What's that D.D.?" Larry responded.

"Where in the world are we?" D.D. asked.

"Got Me," Larry replied.

"Maybe we should check the Clue Car's GPS system just to make sure we're not lost," Dottie said chiming in.

"Good thinking Dottie; D.D., check out our GPS equipment to see what our position is" Larry remarked.

"Gotcha" D.D. replied.

The bespectacled brown haired detective then pushed a button on the dashboard and the vehicle's GPS screen lit up, which displayed the group's exact location and the coordinates of the location.

"According to this, we're in a forest of some kind" D.D. explained.

"I kind of figured that D.D., but where exactly are we?" Pepper asked.

"From the looks of things, we're in the middle of nowhere" D.D. replied.

"Great, now what are we going to do?" Pepper wondered aloud.

"Maybe our friend Mr. Brown knows" Dottie chimed in.

"Good thinking Dottie, let's contact him using the crystal ball he gave us" Larry remarked.

"I'm on it" D.D. responded.

The dark brown haired teenager then reached over to an area of the car below the vehicle's television screen and retrieved said Crystal, after that D.D. placed his hands atop the crystal and began to rub it similar to what a fortuneteller would do; a fuzzy image displayed on the crystal, however even as a hazy picture, the Clue Club had no trouble recognizing their friend.

"Hi Mr. Brown, by the way it looks like your reception is clouded" Dottie remarked.

"Yes it certainly looks that way Dottie, by the way how are you kids doing in your ghost hunting?" Mr. Brown replied.

"Not that good sir, we have no idea where we are" Pepper remarked.

"Yeah, I really haven't got a clue what this place is that we're driving through" D.D replied.

"Hmm, I can sort of make out where you kids are; it looks to me like a forest of some kind, but it doesn't look like any forest I've ever seen, if I were you kids I would be very careful; there's no telling what kind of creatures inhabit that forest" Mr. Brown explained.

"No problem Mr. Brown we'll be careful and thanks" Larry replied.

With that Mr. Brown's picture disappeared from the crystal and the Clue Car continued on its way through the strange foliage; meanwhile, several miles away in a decrepit looking castle a black menacing figure looked into a strange shaped crystal and smiled evilly.

"Every square inch of my forest is covered in my evil magic and it's all thanks to you Princess Esmeralda" the figure gloated as he looked over at an ancient looking torture device called a rack, which had a woman dressed in medieval type clothing stretched out on it.

"You horrible monster, you'll never get away with this Maldor!" the woman replied angrily at the figure.

"Oh but I will Princess, besides who's going to stop me?" the figure replied laughing evilly.

"From the looks of your crystal, I would say who's ever in that vehicle driving through the forest" the Princess explained.

"What?" Maldor sneered.

The evil figure went back over to his crystal and peered into it once again; this time however he did not like what he saw.

"Blast! It appears that I have visitors in my forest, and not only that but mortals as well; hmm, it appears to be four children and two dogs, well I will figure out a way to deal with them and I promise it will not be pleasant" Maldor said laughed evilly.

"Don't you dare hurt them Maldor, after all what did they ever do to you?" the princess replied.

"Nothing yet, but I will make sure that things stay that way; my evil servants of the forest will take care of that" he explained.

Back in the forest the Clue Car continued to make its way through the strange environment, its inhabitants could see various trees, plants and flowers throughout, but they weren't the kind of trees and plants you would normally see.

"Wow, what a creepy looking place" Pepper remarked.

"Yeah, I just hope we can make our way through this place without anything happening" D.D. replied.

Meanwhile as D.D. spoke, back inside his castle, which formerly belonged to Princess Esmerelda Maldor prepared to make sure the Clue Club would go no further.

"I believe I shall send some of my minions to, give those mortals and their dogs a welcome they shall not soon forget" the wizard said chuckling under his breath.

While the Clue Car continued on its journey through the unusual and possibly haunted forest, inside the vehicle Pepper attempted at all costs to look at the various trees in the forest, knowing that most of them could come alive at any minute and begin chasing the automobile; however as much as she tried to avoid it, she ended up watching the frightening trees closely every second of the group's journey, but as she did so she felt a strange feeling beginning to envelop her, similar to a thousand pair of eyes watching the group or a spectral hand reaching out to grab the team of detectives.

"L-Larry" Pepper said nervously.

"What's up Pepper, you sound like you've just seen a ghost" Larry replied.

"I don't know about that, but I think we're being watched and possibly being followed" Pepper said still sounding somewhat afraid.

"Oh don't be ridiculous Pepper, there can't be anyone watching us" D.D. commented.

Unbeknownst to the Clue Club, two of the trees at the side of the road began to slowly change; their branches once filled with green leaves turned to a brittle brown, its limbs started to resemble something out of a nightmare while their roots began coming out of the ground, finally the trees began to take large pounding steps towards the Clue Club and their vehicle.

As the bright yellow vehicle continued to make its way through the strange forest, Pepper began to have a feeling of déjà vu as she looked around and noticed that the trees of the forest were not rooted to the ground any more; knowing that she needed to tell her friends of this event, she decided turned to her right and began tapping D.D. on the shoulder, the bespectacled teen sleuth felt his companion's tapping and asked what was the matter.

"What's up Pepper? You look a bit worried" D.D. questioned as he spoke to his blonde female companion.

"You would be worried too if someone was following you" Pepper replied.

"Come on, not this corny routine again Pepper, I said it once and I'll say it again, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that is following us!" D.D. said with a somewhat raised tone in his voice.

Suddenly the inhabitants of the Clue Car began to feel as if they were being lifted off the road, not to mention each of its inhabitants were also lifted a few inches off their respective seats, even though each of them had their seatbelts securely fastened; knowing that whatever was going on was severely hampering Larry's ability to drive the vehicle, the dark brown haired teenager then decided to turn of the car's engine as they waited to see just what would happen next.

Unfortunately for Larry and the rest of the Clue Club, they were soon going to find out, because after waiting for a few seconds, the Clue Club felt a feeling of déjà vu as they were lifted a few inches out of their seats once again; finally the group of mystery solvers and canines decided to look around the frightening forest to see just what was causing them to be jolted from their seats.

After being unable to find the source of whoever or whatever was making the noise that was causing the group of teen investigators some discomfort, they decided to look in the two places that might be the source of the strange noises: mainly behind the Clue Car and in front of it; first the Clue Club looked at the dirt road in front of them, but saw nothing, finally they decided to look at the dirt road behind the vehicle, but as they did so they would soon wish they hadn't.

As soon as the group of teenage detectives looked behind them, they saw two or three large and definitely monstrous trees complete with broken branches, headed straight for them and looking quite angry.

"Creepers, look at that!" D.D. yelled in terror.

"See, I told you somebody was following us!" Pepper replied, sounding equally nervous.

"Yeah I guess you were right sis, but the question is what are we going to do about it?" Dottie asked.

"I don't see what the big deal is, I could probably take those trees; heck I could turn them into toothpicks in one fell swoop" Woofer said while punching the air with his fists, while making sure not to hit anyone.

"Woofer, did you see the see the size of those trees? Those things look like something out of a nightmare" Wimper replied.

"So, I could still take them" Woofer commented.

"Oh yeah? Look again!" Wimper replied.

So on instinct Woofer looked closely and saw just exactly what Wimper was talking about and as he did so the white bloodhound's tone changed from super dog to cowardly dog.

"Yipes! Those trees look like they want to rip our heads off! I guess you were right Wimp old buddy" Woofer commented.

"I hate to say it but I told you so" Wimper replied.

"Never mind that now Wimper, we've got to get out of here and now!" Woofer said before he and his fellow bloodhound began yelping, whimpering and barking up a storm; the youngest member of the group, Dottie heard this and attempted to comfort her canine colleagues.

"Don't worry guys, we'll escape those trees, as soon as some one thinks of something; so anybody have an ideas?" the pigtailed young detective asked.

"Sure, I've got one; start the Clue Car and get us the heck out of here!" D.D. replied with a frightened tone in his voice.

"Good thinking D.D., I'll sure try it" Larry remarked.

Meanwhile back in his castle Maldor continued looking through his magic crystal and was pleased with what he saw, at least for the moment.

"So it appears that my monster trees are about to make quick work of those meddling mortals and their canines," the wizard said with a devious smile on his face.

"I wouldn't count on it Maldor!" a male voice said coming out of the shadows; a few seconds later an older man with a beard and wearing a blue pointed hat, a long light blue cloak and Benjamin Franklin style glasses began walking towards the evil sorcerer, which made the woman who was laid out on the rack quite happy; while the sinister wizard was anything but happy at this development.

"Zagras, you old fool; I thought I locked you up in the dungeon for all eternity!" Maldor sneered as he pointed a bony finger towards the elderly man.

"Well you thought wrong Maldor, besides I may be getting up in years but I can still find my way through the castle, not to mention I was Princess Esmeralda's personal magician before you took over you, you fairy tale felon!" Zagras replied with an angry sound in his voice.

"Oh bravo Zagras, bravo!" Maldor said, clapping his hands in a somewhat sarcastic manner.

"You know you were never all that good with your comebacks Zagras, and you were never all that good with your magic either!" the sinister wizard added as he aimed his bony finger towards the elderly man.

Sensing that the evil wizard would attempt to harm him, Zagras quickly ducked out of the way of the sorcerer's path; a few seconds later, the elderly wizard began walking towards the rack where Princess Esmeralda was locked inside, however as Zagras looked out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Maldor had figured out what he was trying to do and his walk turned out into an all out run as he attempted to free the princess from her bonds.

Zagras got about twenty feet away from where the princess was and had attempted to free her, but was unsuccessful, in fact a couple moments after he approached the rack Maldor angrily shot what looked to be two bolts of yellow lightning at the elderly man.

"Oh no!" Princess Esmerelda said with a tinge of horror in her voice as the elderly wizard became trapped in what looked to be a magical set of stalks.

"Looks like I beat you again Zagras, you old fool! Now you will never be able to free the princess from her bonds" Maldor commented with a sneer, while laughing evilly.

"Maldor, you fiend, let me out of here!" Zagras replied.

"Oh okay Zagras, since you put it that way I'll let you out of there, after I find your Wonder Wand, then you can watch as I use it's powers to take over the world!" the sinister wizard remarked with a fiendish grin on his face.

"But first I think I'll deal with those meddling mortals and their canines; and by the looks of things it looks like that the mortal who is at the wheel of that vehicle is trying to start it up, well now we wouldn't want that now would we? So I think I'll make sure that vehicle doesn't start up and then those fools won't escape my forest alive!" Maldor continued as he disappeared from the castle in a plume of black smoke.

"Oh dear Zagras, it looks like Maldor might just get his wish after all," the princess said.

"Not to worry princess, if I can get myself out of these stalks I can alert those kids and their dogs" Zagras replied.

"But Zagras, those are magical stalks and even I know that certain kinds of magic spells can't be broken and this one looks somewhat powerful" Princess Esmerelda commented.

"I know princess I know, but I've got to try" Zagras replied.

"That sounds all well and good, but how are you going to get us both out of our respective traps?" Esmerelda wondered.

"Simple, I just have to reach the lock on the stalks, and then maybe I can pick it open" Zagras said.

"But how are you going to open the stalks? You can't reach the lock can you?" Esmeralda asked with a somewhat confused look on her face.

"I most certainly can, I just have to reach for my glasses" Zagras said as he strained to reach his spectacles.

"But how are your glasses going to help us?" Esmeralda asked.

"Before I came in here to attempt to stop Maldor, I managed to hide a small skeleton key on the right side of my spectacles; all I have to do is reach for it, as much as I can, then hopefully I can retrieve it and open the stalks and your trap as well" Zagras explained.

"I hope so too Zagras, I hope so too" Esmerelda replied.

While Zagras attempted to free himself from the magical trap that Maldor had specially conjured for him, Larry and the rest of his fellow teenage and canine detectives were attempting to start the Clue Car's engine, which would allow the adolescent investigators to leave the forest and continue searching for the first of the thirteen ghosts from the Demon Chest; however behind a nearby tree, the evil wizard Maldor was about to make sure that the group would not leave the wooded area alive.

"So those foolish mortals intend to use that strange vehicle to escape from my forest, well I shall not let that happen; instead I shall make certain those fools will become a permanent part of my forest of pure evil!" the sinister sorcerer remarked.

The evil wizard then pointed his bony finger at the Clue Car and prepared to watch the fireworks begin; the dark brown haired unofficial leader of the group turned the vehicle's key and attempted to start it, hoping the car would be able to transport them out of the woods without any trouble or any harm coming to the group; but because of Maldor's spell, the Clue Car failed to start, however at the moment this fact was not known to Larry and the rest of the group, who chalked it up to basic vehicle trouble.

"This is ridiculous, before we got into the forest the Clue Car worked fine and now the vehicle won't start at all," Larry explained.

"Try it again Larry, maybe there's nothing wrong with it" Dottie replied.

"OK, I'll try it again" Larry said.

But unfortunately for the Clue Club, the vehicle's engine struggled to start, which perplexed the members of the detective agency to no end; however, Larry decided to not give up trying to start the vehicle, so he tried again but once again the Clue Car failed to start; this time Larry scratched his head and didn't know what else to do so he tried starting the vehicle again, but once more it failed to start, so with no other options Larry threw up his hands in disgust after turning off the vehicle, he then placed his hands on the steering wheel and decided to give up.

"Well I guess that's it, the Clue Car is officially dead" Larry remarked.

"Considering our creepy surroundings I just hope that we don't turn out to be that way later" D.D. replied.

"D.D. there's really nothing to worry about, besides what could happen to us in a forest?" Pepper asked.

Suddenly the Crystal Ball, which at the moment was sitting below the Clue Car's in car computer screen, began to glow, which of course caused D.D. to become quite nervous and jumpy.

"Yipes, what's that?" D.D. asked, cowering a bit in the back seat of the vehicle.

"Easy super chicken, it's just the Crystal Ball that Mr. Brown gave us," Pepper explained.

"And it looks like he's trying to contact us right now" Dottie added.

A few seconds later, as if right on cue a three dimensional picture of the group's new friend was displayed in the vehicle; the Clue Club curiously wondered as to why their friend wanted to talk to them, so Larry decided to ask the group's new friend as to why he was contacting them.

"What's up Mr. Brown?" the dark brown haired teen wondered.

"Plenty, according to the spectral radar I have here in the castle, you are closing in on one of the thirteen spirits from the Chest of Demons; in fact I have reason to believe that this spirit is very close to where you kids are right now" Mr. Brown replied.

"I figured as much, plus I think we've already had a taste of what the spirits from the chest can do" Larry remarked.

"You have?" Mr. Brown asked incredulously.

"Yeah, first a group of monster trees were following us, then a few moments ago we tried to start our vehicle, the Clue Car, but no matter what we did it just wouldn't start" Pepper explained.

"Hmm, very interesting" Mr. Brown replied with a curious look on his face.

"The only thing I can think of that could be wrong is the engine, although that can't be what's really wrong with it, can it?" Larry asked.

"Well Larry I don't know too much about automobiles, but it sounds to me like you and your friends have bigger problems then just a broken vehicle" Mr. Brown explained.

"What kind of problems?" Larry wondered.

"Larry, you remember a little while ago when I contacted you kids and you told me you were in some sort of forest" Mr. Brown said.

"Yes I remember" Larry answered.

"After I talked to the five of you I did some research here in my castle and unfortunately what you have described to me about your vehicle not working, the monster trees chasing you and the strange forest match up with what I looked up in one of my volumes" Mr. Brown clarified.

"Uh oh, I have a bad feeling I know what you're talking about Mr. Brown and if what you read is what I'm thinking of, you know exactly who the first of the thirteen ghosts is and what his or her powers are like" Dottie replied.

"Very good Dottie, actually everything you said is true; I do know who the first spirit is and I would advise you all to be on your guard now that you know what he's up to" Mr. Brown explained.

"But who is this ghost?" D.D. asked.

"And what does he want?" Pepper added.

"Both excellent questions and I can answer both of them; you see the first of the thirteen ghosts from the Demon Chest is named Maldor and according to my book he is a master of black magic from the dark ages" Mr. Brown said.

"Black magic? You m-mean like a sorcerer?" D.D. asked with a trembling tone in his voice.

"Correct and as you can probably tell he has worked his black magic upon the forest that you are currently driving through; the reason that I told you all to be careful is because Maldor is all powerful, not to mention you would probably run in terror at the sight of him" Mr. Brown answered.

"But that still doesn't tell us what he wants, not to mention how do we stop him from achieving whatever goal he has in mind" Larry asked.

"It's very simple, now that he has worked his black magic over the forest, I'm afraid that he will not stop until he has used his magic to take complete control of the world" Mr. Brown replied.

"That's horrible! Isn't there anything we can do to stop him from taking over the world?" Dottie asked with a gasp.

"Yes, there is something that all of you can do to stop this villain from succeeding in his campaign; according to my research Maldor has taken over an ancient castle atop a hillside not far from here, that is where you should find him" Mr. Brown said.

"Thank you for the information Mr. Brown, we'll get started right away" Larry replied.

"You're welcome Larry, remember to be extra careful when tracking down Maldor now that you know what he's capable of" Mr. Brown remarked.

"Don't worry Mr. Brown, we will" Larry answered; with that, Mr. Brown's picture disappeared from the Crystal Ball leaving the Clue Club to their thoughts once again, except for one important thing: they still needed to figure out transportation out of the peculiar forest.

"So Larry, how on earth are we going to get past the monster trees, not to mention how are we ever going to get out of this creepy forest without the benefit of transportation?" Dottie asked.

"That's a good question Dottie, but with the Clue Car on the fritz, I really don't know the answer" Larry replied.

"Do you guys really think that wizard Maldor had something to do with the Clue Car not working, like Mr. Brown said?" D.D. wondered.

"I wish they would stop talking about Maldor, he sounds like a mean guy" Wimper commented.

"Of course he's a mean guy Wimper, he's an evil wizard and it's up to us to find him" Woofer replied.

"Oh yeah, I guess I forgot about that" Wimper said.

"You know D.D. I'm beginning to think Maldor was responsible for whatever's going on with the Clue Car; I guess if we're going to track that wizard down and capture him, we'll have to walk through the forest from here on out" Larry remarked.

"Walk? Through this creepy forest, you've got be kidding" D.D. said somewhat nervously.

"I know it doesn't sound like a good idea D.D., but it's the only way we can get through these woods to Maldor's castle, now come on gang let's go" Larry explained.

After explaining the group's current situation, the dark brown haired unofficial leader of the Clue Club opened the driver's side door of the Clue Car and walked outside into the fray, mainly the monstrous forest where the Clue Club currently was.

A few seconds later Dottie, Pepper, D.D., Woofer and Wimper followed their unofficial leader out of the vehicle and into the nightmare woods; meanwhile Maldor continued to hide and sneered as he noticed the Clue Club advancing through the forest.

"Blast those mortals, well there's more than one way to stop those fools and their canines!" Maldor said, laughing menacingly; even though he was a wizard, he realized that the only way to stop the Clue Club was to follow them and see if the monstrous creatures of the forest could assist him.

Meanwhile back in the sinister sorcerer's castle, Zagras the wizard was still straining to escape his magical bonds, but as you would expect was failing miserably; for as hard as the wizard tried, he just couldn't reach his glasses to retrieve the skeleton key he had hidden.

"Zagras, maybe you should just give it up; I don't see any way you're going to get out of that trap, or be able to get me out of mine" Esmerelda said with a somewhat gloomy sounding tone in her voice.

"Not to worry Princess, you're talking to a wizard that never gives up; just let me... try, once... again and... Got it!" Zagras exclaimed as he finally managed to retrieve the small key he had hidden on the right side of his glasses.

"That's a key?" Princess Esmerelda wondered as she saw the wizard put the small key between his teeth.

"Yes, now if I can just bring the key in my teeth down to the lock, I can open it" Zagras replied, while still holding the small key in his teeth.

"I don't know if this is going to work or not, but go ahead and give it a shot anyway" Esmerelda commented.

"Okay, here goes" Zagras said; so the elderly wizard slowly brought the small black key down the to the lock, after a few seconds of twisting the key in the lock, the wizard found that he had been successful as the stalks opened and Zagras stood up, quite thankful that his plan had worked.

"Phew, I am I glad that worked, if I had spent another minute in those stalks I think I might have gone stir crazy or worse" the elderly wizard commented, while doing some stretching.

"Yeah, it's a good thing you figured a way out of those things, otherwise you might have had a serious neck injury or something like that; well, now that you've escaped your trap, do you think that skeleton key would be able to get me out of this rack before I get split in half" Esmeralda quipped.

"Certainly princess, in fact I'll walk over there now and free you from your trap" Zagras said.

With that the elderly wizard walked a few steps over to the where the princess was and put the small black key in the lock of the strange medieval contraption; after a few seconds of fiddling with said lock, the wizard managed to get it open, which caused the beautiful princess great joy as she smiled, stood up and walked over to the elderly wizard, all the while hugging the sorcerer tightly.

"Zagras you're wonderful! You did it; you freed me from that horned wizard's trap!" Esmeralda gleefully exclaimed.

"Thank you princess, but could you do one thing for me?" Zagras asked.

"Anything Zagras, anything" Esmeralda replied.

"Could you please take it easy, you're crushing me!" Zagras commented.

"Whoops, sorry about that Zagras, I'm just so relieved to be free" Esmeralda replied.

"I know princess, as am I; now that we're out of our respective traps, I can attempt to transport us out of this castle and into the forest to help those kids and their canines that Maldor was talking about" Zagras said.

"Yes I hope so too, but shouldn't we go over and look in Maldor's crystal to see where those kids are so we can help them?" Esmerelda asked.

"Good thinking princess, come on" Zagras declared as he and the princess walked over to the sinister sorcerer's magic crystal; as the pair peered into the crystal they both noticed the Clue Club walking through the woods, while noticing that a familiar dark figure was closely following behind them.

"Oh dear, it looks like that horrible wizard is trying to capture them; Zagras, we've really got to do something, we have to warn those kids about Maldor" Princess Esmerelda remarked with a panicked tone in her voice.

"Calm down princess, I have an excellent idea; I should be able to use my magic to transport us from this castle, into the forest to help our visitors" Zagras replied.

"Let's just hope your magic is still what it used to be" Esmerelda said.

"I hope so too, well here goes nothing" Zagras declared as he cracked his knuckles and raised his arms; he attempted to surround himself and the princess in a magic bubble and for a few moments it seemed like the spell worked, however a few seconds later the pair discovered they had not been transported out of the castle but were still inside the strange palace, which made the elderly wizard somewhat confused.

"I don't understand it, that spell should have worked but it didn't work at all" Zagras commented, while scratching his head in disbelief.

"Hmm, that is weird; although if I had to guess I would say that Maldor has put some sort of spell on the castle, which would most likely cause us to remain here as his prisoners, even though I escaped my trap and you escaped yours as well" Princess Esmeralda explained.

"That's certainly possible Princess Esmeralda, although I'm surprised that what you said actually makes sense" Zagras said.

"And why not, I happen to be a very intelligent princess" Esmeralda replied.

"I know you are Esmerelda; but unfortunately, it looks like we're going to be stuck inside this castle for quite a while" Zagras commented.

"Yes it certainly looks that way doesn't it; I guess the only way that we can get out of here is if those mortals and their canines come here and find us" Princess Esmerelda replied.

"Don't worry princess, from the looks of things I would say those kids and dogs are doing pretty well in avoiding Maldor; who knows, maybe they'll be the ones to capture that fiend and return the forest back to how it once was" Zagras remarked.

"I certainly hope so Zagras, I certainly hope so" Princess Esmerelda replied.

Back in the forest, Larry and the rest of the Clue Club continued to search for someway out their perilous predicament; however unbeknownst to them, the first of the spirits from the Demon Chest was continuing to hide behind a nearby tree and was waiting for his chance to destroy the teen sleuths.

A few seconds later, as the adolescent investigators continued to walk through the forest, the youngest member of the group noticed a shadowy figure coming towards them; the Clue Club became quite nervous as they didn't know what to expect from this shadow, after all it might just be Maldor the Malevolent, who was still waiting to get rid of the teenagers and their bloodhounds, but as the shadow came closer it turned out this wasn't Maldor, but rather something more pleasant.

"Hey, it's a little bunny rabbit" Dottie said as a small white furry creature began hopping towards them and into the young girl's arms.

"Woofer, it's a rabbit" Whimper remarked.

"I know that Whimper, I was just testing you, to make sure you were on your toes in case that was Maldor" Woofer replied.

"Oh yeah? Then how come you sounded as scared as the rest of us when that shadow came closer? Whimper asked.

"Ooh, never mind!" Woofer said, with a somewhat displeased look on his face as he folded his arms.

"Aww, aren't you the cutest wittle thing, you're so cute, yes you are" Dottie said sweetly as she began to softly scratch the furry animal's chin, while continuing to softly pet the rabbit and stroke its white fur.

"Dottie, do you have to talk like that?" Pepper asked.

"Of course I do sis, why?" the young girl answered.

"Because when you talk like that, you kind of sound like a baby" Pepper replied, teasing her younger sister a bit.

"I am not talking like a baby, I am fourteen you know; in fact the only reason why I was talking to the rabbit like that was because he's so darn adorable and you know how I feel about small and cuddly animals" Dottie remarked.

"I know, I know, you just couldn't help yourself, don't worry about it sis, I won't tell anybody" Pepper said as she chuckled silently under her breath.

"Well just make sure you don't" Dottie replied.

While the youngest member of the Clue Club continued to happily stroke the rabbit's fur as she held it in her arms, the group of teenagers were unaware that the first of the thirteen specters from the Chest of Demons was about to make a play to destroy the teenage detectives; from his hiding place Maldor decided to point one of his bony fingers at the small creature and a few seconds later the youngest member of the Clue Club found herself softly dropping the rabbit onto the ground as the creature began growing green scales and a large reptile like tail.

"Oh no!" Dottie shrieked.

"What's the matter Dottie?" Larry asked.

"Th-the rabbit!" Dottie said as she attempted to tell her friends what was happening, while still sounding somewhat frightened.

"What about it?" D.D. wondered.

"It-it's becoming a dragon!" Dottie said with a nervous tone in her voice.

"What?" Larry replied, somewhat confused at what the young girl saw.

"That's impossible Dottie, besides there's no such things as dragons" D.D. added.

"Well you better not tell him that!" the pigtailed young sleuth said as she pointed at the fearsome fire-breathing creature who was now standing just a few feet away from her and the rest of the Clue Club.

The large green scaly creature, which up until a few minutes ago was a friendly white furry rabbit, began slowly approaching the gang as they attempted to figure out someway to avoid being a mythical fairy tale creature's blue plate special.

"Anyone have any ideas?" Pepper remarked, while continuing to tremble in fear at the fire-breathing monster.

"Not a one" D.D. said.

"I've got one" Larry remarked.

"What is it?" Pepper asked.

"Run for your lives!" Larry yelled.

"Good idea!" D.D. added.

So with that the Clue Club, along with their two bloodhounds ran from the fearsome fire-breathing fairly tale monster right on the team of detectives tails, no pun intended; for the next several minutes the teenage and canine sleuths tried to escape the scaly monster, stopping for a few seconds here and there to catch the group's respective breaths; but every time it seemed that the group was safe, they looked behind them, only to see the face of the frightening fairy tale creature which meant that the creature was continuing to gain on them.

After a few more minutes of running the Clue Club found themselves at a crossroads so to speak, to be more specific they found themselves at the edge of a riverbank, with the fearsome fairy tale dragon still right behind them and catching up with every passing second.

"Oh great, below us there's a raging river, leading to who knows where and behind us there's a fugitive from story book land trying to catch us and roast us, what are we going to do?" D.D. asked.

"I hate to say it gang but there's only one option: we have to jump in the river" Larry said.

"Are you crazy? We can't out swim that-that dragon!" D.D. said.

"Oh yes we can, and I've got the perfect solution" Dottie explained.

"What's that sis?" Pepper asked.

"This!" the young girl replied as she held a small yellow capsule in her hand.

"What is that?" D.D. wondered.

"I call it Instant Raft, you see all you have to do is just toss it in the river like so" Dottie explained as she threw the capsule into the river.

"What next?" D.D. asked.

"Just watch" Dottie replied.

Suddenly the capsule began to grow larger as the group of sleuths noticed that there was something yellow and what looked to be rubbery coming out of it; in the span of a few more seconds the yellow substance came completely out of the capsule and sitting or rather floating in the river was a large yellow rubber raft built for six.

"Voila!" Dottie exclaimed as she looked down at her triumph.

"Hey! How about that, way to go Dottie!" Larry said as he congratulated the young genius.

"Thanks, now you know why I call it Instant Raft; all you have to do is add water and you have yourself a mode of transportation" Dottie explained.

"I guess so; well now that we have transportation let's split!" Larry said.

"Good thinking Larry" D.D. replied.

So with that the six members of the Clue Club each jumped into the large yellow raft; with a strong push, the raft began its journey down the river, secretly hoping that when their journey was over, they would be one step closer to leaving the frightening looking forest.

Meanwhile back in the forest, the sinister horned wizard Maldor became quite enraged as he looked down into the river only to see the Clue Club making their way through the rough waters.

"Blast those mortals; they just don't want to give up! Well, there's more than one way to catch a mortal and I'm going see to it that those fools will never leave this forest alive!" Maldor growled, before disappearing in a plume of yellow smoke.

On their small yellow rubber raft the Clue Club saw that there were still dozens of sinister looking plants and trees flanking the river, which all looked quite hungry and were looking like they were ready to have a snack, which if the group of teenagers weren't careful could consist of them.

"Boy this sure isn't like the lakes and rivers back home is it Pepper?" Dottie asked.

"Nope, although I wish it was" Pepper replied.

"If this was like any of the rivers or lakes back home then we would be able to splash and play it and we would have loads of fun and not have to worry about a creepy old ghost capturing us," Wimper said.

"That's for sure, you know I wish we were back home right now instead of in this creepy forest" Woofer replied.

"How come?" Wimper asked.

"Because if we were home then I could be relaxing with a nice juicy ham bone right now; aah, I can just imagine it now" Woofer replied while closing his eyes as he thought of having a nice snack, however he and the rest of his fellow human and canine sleuths were unaware that they would have a major problem pretty soon.

"Wimper, is it just me or did somebody leave a faucet running?" Woofer asked.

"I don't think so; but just curious, why did you ask?" Whimper replied.

"Because it sounds like somebody left a faucet running or something like that," Woofer said.

"Uh Woofer, I think I know why you heard something like a faucet running" Whimper replied.

"Okay why do you think that?" Woofer asked.

"Because of that!" Whimper said as he pointed frantically towards a waterfall at the end of the river.

"Oh that? That's just a really scary waterfall and..." Woofer began before stopping in mid sentence.

"A waterfall!" Woofer exclaimed, realizing what he just said; with no other options he decided to what a dog would normally do in this situation, mainly to bark up a storm and after a few moments the rest of the Clue Club could hear what was going on, so they decided to ask the bloodhound what he was barking at.

"What's the matter Woofer?" Dottie asked.

The bloodhound continued barking which caused the other human members of the detective agency to wonder what was happening, but a few moments later D.D. happened to look about a few hundred feet in front of the raft and gasped at what he saw.

"Uh gang, I think I know what Woofer is trying to say" D.D. remarked.

"What's that D.D.?" Larry asked.

"Because there's a waterfall coming up fast!" D.D. yelled.

"What?" the rest of the gang asked in unison.

"You're kidding!" Pepper remarked.

"Oh yeah? Well just look and tell me what you see!" D.D. replied.

So the rest of the Clue Club looked in front of the small raft and saw what D.D. was talking about, so the group of teenage sleuths did what anyone would do in that situation: they became quite nervous and started panicking.

"Now what are we going to do?" Pepper asked.

"Simple, we're going to have to paddle the raft quickly and hope that we don't end up soaked" Larry replied.

"I just hope we can get out of here and in one piece" D.D. said somewhat nervously.

"Don't worry gang we will; now, D.D., Pepper and Woofer take one side of the raft, and Wimper, you Dottie and I will take this side of the raft and we'll hope that this plan works" Larry explained.

So with that the teenage and canine sleuths began paddling furiously as the small yellow raft continued to float down the river towards the waterfall; inside the small raft it became quite apparent that the teenage sleuths and canine sleuths were quite nervous as they hoped that they were going to arrive at their intended destination in one piece.

The Clue Club continued drifting down the creepy looking river as each of the group's members began paddling furiously, hoping that somehow someway they could avoid the waterfall only a few feet ahead of them, but fate and luck were not on the side of the group of teenage and canine sleuths as a few moments later they found themselves headed straight for the waterfall and it became apparent that they were about to be waterlogged very soon.

"Larry, I hate to say it but we're still headed for that waterfall and I think the current might be too strong for us to get out of" Dottie said.

"I guess you might be right Dottie, which means there's only one thing for us to do" Larry replied.

"What's that?" D.D. asked.

"Hang on tight and hold your breaths until we reach the bottom" Larry replied.

"I figured you were going to say that" D.D. added.

"Well let's not worry about that right now, let's just listen to Larry and hope we stay dry" Pepper replied.

A few seconds later the small yellow rubber raft approached the waterfall and a few moments after that began rapidly descended the waterfall until the group of detectives landed with a splash in what looked to be a small lagoon or lake at the bottom; having thankfully survived the group's plunge off the waterfall, the teenage sleuths and canines climbed out of the water and shook the liquid out of their clothing and fur respectively.

After climbing out of the water the Clue Club surveyed the area surrounding the lake and were not pleased with what they saw, mainly more evil looking plants, trees and who knows what else; however, the group of teenage sleuths knew they needed to press on whatever the odds, so after examining their surroundings they began walking through the forest once again.

But of course all was not well in the forest as the fiendish wizard was watching every move the group of sleuths made, while hiding a safe distance away; after walking quite a while the Clue Club found themselves at the edge of the forest, which confused the teenage sleuths somewhat, although the youngest of the group realized something that might help the detectives out.

"Well, I guess we're out of forest" Larry remarked.

"But how are we going to find Maldor's castle then?" D.D. asked.

"I know a way" Dottie spoke up.

"Okay Dottie, let's hear it" Larry replied.

"Well, even though we may have left the forest, we're still on the right track, just look in front of us" Dottie explained.

The youngest member of the Clue Club noticed that the forest led directly into a long stone path and as the teenage and canine sleuths saw this they also noticed that at the very end of the path, was a large medieval looking castle, which the gang assumed was Maldor's.

"Hey you're right sis, now we can get into that wizard's castle and then we can figure out a way to defeat him" Pepper remarked.

"She's right, Dottie you're a genius" Larry replied.

"You're just saying that for one reason, because it's true" Dottie commented while her cheeks were turning a bright red.

"Okay, now that we know how to get to Maldor's castle, let's get going" Larry declared.

So with that the Clue Club began walking along the stone pathway hoping to get to Maldor's castle in one piece, but considering the sleuths were dealing with a master of black magic, that wasn't going to be easy; actually very soon, the group of teen sleuths and their pair of bloodhounds was going to see just what and who they were dealing with up close and personal, as unbeknownst to them the sinister wizard had just appeared in a puff of white smoke right behind them.

The group of teenagers and canines continued walking up the stone pathway leading to the castle, hoping that they would be able to get up to the castle without anything happening to them; however after a few moments the blonde female member of the group began to get the feeling that someone or something was following them.

"Larry" Pepper remarked.

"What is it Pepper?" Larry asked.

"I hear footsteps coming from behind us, I think there's someone back there" Pepper replied.

"Oh don't be silly Pepper, there's nobody following us" D.D. commented, somewhat annoyed at his companion.

"I guess you're right" Pepper replied.

A few minutes passed and once again the blonde teenager heard what sounded like footsteps behind her and the rest of the Clue Club, but this time she agreed with her friends and passed it off as nothing, so she and the rest of the gang continued walking; but after a few more moments Pepper once again could hear what sounded like footsteps coming from behind them, only this time it sounded like they were getting louder; this time Pepper knew that she wasn't dreaming and decided to turn around to see who or what was following the Clue Club, once she did this she saw a frightening looking figure with two white horns coming out of his head, he was wearing a long black cloak trimmed in dark violet and had sandy light brown almost blond hair; in short he looked like something out of a dark fairy tale or a nightmare, which made Pepper do two things: first she wished that she hadn't turned around to see this frightening sight and two, she quickly alerted the rest of the group to the appearance of this strange specter by tapping on each of her friends shoulders.

Naturally each of the members of the group were quite curious and quite annoyed at their blonde female comrade for bothering them; so the bespectacled member of the group decided to ask why she had tapped each of her fellow sleuths on their shoulders.

"What's the matter now Pepper?" D.D. asked, somewhat aggravated at the blonde teenager.

"D.D., there-there's someone following us, and I think you, Larry, Dottie, Woofer and Wimper should really turn around and see this" Pepper replied, as she stood in terror at the sight of the strange being.

"Pepper, for the last time, there's no one following us; and to prove it I'm going to turn around and show you what's there" D.D. explained; so the yellow hat clad sleuth turned around, but unfortunately for him he was now face to horrible face with the same evil looking creature that Pepper had already seen.

"W-wh, what or who is that?" D.D. asked nervously as he pointed at the nightmarish creature.

The sinister Maldor then began laughing evilly, which caused the rest of the group of teenage sleuths and their bloodhounds to shake in their shoes at the sight of the strange being; although Larry, who had been the bravest member of the group in the past and was the unofficial leader of the Clue Club, he was also quite scared of the frightening horned creature that was standing only a few feet away.

"Wh-who are you?" Larry asked, trying to mask his fear of the sinister wizard, although it wasn't easy.

"I am Maldor the Malevolent, master of black magic at your service," the evil wizard said, almost bowing at the teen sleuths.

"What a creepy guy, I wouldn't like to meet him in a dream" Wimper remarked.

"He seems more like a guy that would be in a nightmare, not a dream" Woofer replied.

"Maldor? You're from the Chest of Demons aren't you?" Dottie asked.

"Yes I am, and I know many things; although I don't believe I'm familiar with all of you" Maldor replied.

"Well you may not know who we are but we know you are, and we're also the group of people and dogs who are going to put you back in the Chest of Demons, where you belong!" Larry declared.

"Oh really? Well, I am a master of sorcery, so I doubt that" Maldor replied with his arms folded, looking clearly annoyed at the gang.

"Well we're going to trap you in the chest whether you like it or not, come on gang let's get him!" Larry replied; so he and the rest of the Clue Club including Dottie who was carrying the chest began walking towards him, however Maldor was ready for this and began walking towards the group of teenagers and their canines.

"So you kids think you're all ghost chasers huh? Well, I'm going to make sure to it that you meddlers don't make it out of this forest alive!" Maldor declared as he aimed his hands at the various trees, plants and animals of the forest; suddenly the foliage of the forest and several of the animals that were about the woods including a couple rabbits, owls and other small creatures slowly started to become alive and also started to slowly but surely approach the Clue Club.

"Well, it looks like the shoe is on the other foot now isn't it? My black magic has turned the creatures of the forest into my servants and now my servants will destroy you meddling mortals and your little dogs too, now get them!" Maldor declared, a few moments later the monster trees and animals began taking gigantic, pounding footsteps towards the gang, which left them with only one alternative: run as fast as they could.

So with that the gang ran down the stone pathway hoping somehow, someway that they could escape the sinister sorcerer's wrath; as they ran, Maldor tried to do whatever he could to destroy the gang including having the evil animals and the plants of the forest chase the teenage sleuths and their bloodhounds, the group of teenage and canine sleuths managed to outrun the sinister creatures for a while but eventually they came to the door of a large imposing castle, and they realized that there was a good chance that it might be a dead end.

"Larry, I think we're in serious trouble, I don't think there's any way we can escape those plants and those monster animals," Pepper said with a great amount of terror in her voice.

"Now don't anybody panic, we will get out of this, I just don't know how" Larry remarked as he and the rest of his fellow teenage and canine sleuths backed up slowly towards the entrance of the castle.

Meanwhile inside said castle, Zagras and Esmerelda were waiting for someone to rescue them when Maldor's magic crystal began to glow; the elderly wizard and the princess quickly ran over to the crystal and gazed inside it to see what was going on, once the sorcerer and the princess looked in the crystal, they saw a group of teenagers and a pair of bloodhounds being chased by the sinister wizard and a number of monstrous trees, plants and animals.

"Zagras, it's those kids and dogs we saw earlier, and it looks like they're trapped!" Princess Esmerelda said with a horrified look on her face.

"It certainly looks that way; Princess, we have to do something to help those mortals and fast!" Zagras replied with a look of urgency on his face and in his voice.

"But what can we do? You can't use your magic to bring them inside the castle, or can you?" Princess Esmerelda wondered.

"No, but there is one way to bring them inside here; and that's to lower the drawbridge, open the castle door and hope that those kids and their canines can get inside without Maldor seeing them or us, come on!" Zagras declared.

The elderly wizard then quickly ran over to an ancient looking control panel, pulled a large gray lever on the right side of the panel up and as soon as you could say Abracadabra, Pepper noticed that the large wooden door she and the rest of her friends were standing in front of was beginning to slowly rise, which meant only one thing to the teen detectives.

"Hey, looks like someone is letting us in" the blonde female sleuth remarked.

"I wonder if they're friend or foe?" D.D. questioned.

"D.D., right now I don't care who it is, let's just get inside and quick!" Larry said as each of the members of the Clue Club quickly ducked inside the ancient looking door of the castle; naturally it was a good thing that they got inside because had someone not let them in, there was a good chance that they wouldn't leave the forest alive.

"Blast it! That old fool Zagras and the princess must have gotten to the door and let those mortals inside, well I'll just have to bide my time and wait until those meddlers are out in the open and then, I will destroy them!" Maldor cackled before disappearing in a plume of black smoke.

Meanwhile after Zagras opened the ancient structure's drawbridge and door, he and the princess quickly ran out of sight to wait for he and the princess's two guests, hoping that the group of sleuths would be able to help them defeat the evil sorcerer; as this was going on the team of teen sleuths and their canines walked through what looked to be a throne room, while searching for who or what opened the door and drawbridge, thereby allowing them entrance to the castle.

"Boy, this place is sure creepy; it looks like somewhere that an evil wizard or a wicked queen would live" D.D. remarked.

"Come on D.D., do you really believe there are such things as evil wizards or wicked queens?" Pepper replied.

"Well we saw an evil wizard earlier and he sure passed the test" D.D. commented.

"That's for sure, I'm just glad he's not chasing us any more" Wimper remarked.

"Oh don't be such a scaredy dog, if he shows his face again, I know we could take him" Woofer replied.

"One thing's still bothering me about this whole thing" Dottie remarked.

"What's that Dottie?" Larry asked.

"I wouldn't mind finding who let us in, I mean someone had to be in this castle, how else would we be able to get inside?" Dottie wondered.

"Actually that would be me" a female voice said as she began walking out of the shadows; the woman was dressed in clothes similar to what a fairy tale princess would wear, albeit all in shades of pink, purple or violet, as she stepped forward the Clue Club was quite curious to know who this woman was and what she was doing in the castle, so Larry decided to engage her in conversation.

"Who are you, miss?" Larry asked.

"My name is Princess Esmerelda, I once was the ruler of this land; I was a kind and generous leader, that is until one day when an evil wizard named Maldor took over the entire area and used his evil magic to transform the forest that you drove through to get here completely evil" the woman explained.

"That's awful, why would he do such a thing?" Pepper asked.

"I can answer that young lady," said a male voice.

The Clue Club could see an older man with gray hair, wearing a blue pointed hat, a pair of glasses that resembled those that an airline pilot would wear, and a long blue cloak coming out of the shadows and moving towards them.

"Who are you, sir?' D.D. wondered.

"My name is Zagras the wizard, I was once Princess Esmerelda's personal magician; sadly ever since Maldor reared his ugly head I had to go into hiding trying to avoid being captured by that wicked sorcerer; in addition for many years the princess was locked in the dungeon, she was essentially his prisoner and as a result he took over the entire castle and was able to take control of her domain; in recent years he has set a new goal for himself: using his black magic to rule the entire world" the man explained.

"That's terrible Mr. Zagras, tell me is there anything we can do to stop Maldor?" Larry asked.

"There is one thing that might be able to stop him" Zagras remarked.

"What's that?" Dottie asked curiously.

"If you can find the Wonder Wand that might give you a chance to defeat him once and for all" Zagras explained.

"What is this Wonder Wand anyway?" D.D. asked.

"The Wonder Wand is an item of my own creation that can match the power of any evil wizard or sorcerer, when Maldor began using his evil magic to take control of the kingdom I hid the Wand so that Maldor would never find it" Zagras explained.

"But where is this item sir?" Pepper asked.

"That's the problem, when I hid the wand I have no idea where I hid it so the six of you will have to search the castle to find it" Zagras explained.

"Oh great, there must be hundreds of rooms in this place; how in the world are we ever going to find the wand?" D.D. wondered.

"Simple, we'll split up and search the castle until we find it; Dottie and I will search the upstairs, D.D. you and Pepper search the downstairs, while Woofer and Wimper can cover the outside area just in case" Larry explained.

"Right, come on D.D. let's get going" Pepper remarked as she urged her comrade to come with her.

"Okay, okay, you don't have to be so pushy Pepper, I'll go with you" D.D replied.

With that the six adolescent investigators each went their separate ways, hoping to somehow find the Wonder Wand of Zagras which would defeat the evil Maldor and restore Princess Esmerelda's castle to it's former glory; after splitting up, eventually Pepper and D.D. found themselves searching through a dark, dingy hallway littered with cobwebs and suits of armor, although at the moment the pair of sleuths didn't know that the suits of armor were watching them search.

"Pepper?" D.D. asked.

"Yeah D.D.?" Pepper wondered.

"Do you think we'll run into that creepy Maldor again?" D.D. inquired.

"I don't know and I don't want to find out" Pepper replied.

"Yeah, I guess it's best not to think about it" D.D remarked.

With that the two teenagers resumed searching through the corridor, however only a few feet behind them, a mysterious black plume of smoke appeared in the hall and when it vanished, standing behind the pair was Maldor, looking menacing as usual; he snickered evilly under his breath as he watched the pair look for the Wonder Wand, although he knew full well that if the Clue Club found the wand first, he might not have a chance, even with his evil magic.

Author's Notes: After some thought, and speaking with a few people online about my fan fics I decided to split this episode into two chapters, hopefully this will work out well and I look forward to getting more reviews on my work. I may split other of the 13 Ghosts episodes into two chapters as well, but as for now I'm not sure.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Inside a fairy tale style castle nestled among the trees in a rather terrifying looking forest, the members of a group of adolescent sleuths, and their canines collectively known as the Clue Club were in the midst of attempting to track down the 13 foulest, most evil spirits, ghosts, ghouls and phantoms in the world; while the team of investigators knew that this wasn't anything like their previous mysteries which usually just involved run of the mill crooks, this mystery was nothing those ones and if the Clue Club failed to succeed in solving this mystery, there was a good chance they wouldn't be around to see the result.

While their comrades were attempting to avoid capture by the sinister wizard known as Maldor, Dottie and Larry walked through the upstairs hallway and were working on trying to find any semblance of a clue as to the whereabouts of the Wonder Wand of Zagras, while they also tried to avoid capture by the sinister wizard or any of his cronies.

"This place certainly is creepy huh Larry?" Dottie asked.

"It certainly looks that way to me Dottie, although considering we're dealing with a real life spirit, instead of just a garden variety criminal it does make me a bit nervous too" Larry replied.

"I wonder if we're going to run into any other surprises here besides the ones we've seen and encountered already?" Dottie asked.

"I don't know Dottie, I don't know, but whatever happens we'll be ready for it" Larry replied.

The two sleuths then resumed their search of the upstairs corridor and the various rooms that were located throughout it; even though the castle's only inhabitants for the longest time were Princess Esmerelda and the wizard Zagras, it seemed to the pair of amateur detectives like there were hundreds of more rooms then would be needed for a castle where only two people lived.

"Boy talk about a posh castle, I wouldn't know where to start looking for the wonder wand that Zagras was talking about" Dottie remarked.

"Good point Dottie, although maybe we should try and start by getting to the bottom, or rather top of things" Larry replied.

"The top? Ah, you mean the attic right?" Dottie asked.

"Right; although I wonder if this place has an attic?" Larry remarked.

"Don't know, but we could always check" Dottie replied.

"Right, come on" Larry said, urging the fourteen year old red head to follow the dark brown haired young adult, which she did; the two of them had been walking for around ten minutes until they reached an old fashioned wooden door which naturally was locked.

The brown haired detective then remembered he sometimes carried pins and other small items in his pockets, so he reached into one of his pants pockets and rummaged around for an item that would help open the door; which he found a few moments later; the dark brown haired sleuth had found a small skeleton key, which he hoped would help him, however the only way to do that was to insert the key into the door's lock, which he did and soon after that he opened the door wide to let himself and Dottie enter.

Larry and Dottie then carefully and quietly entered the strange room, hoping to find some sort of clue as to where the Wonder Wand of Zagras was located; as the two sleuths stepped across the floor of the room, they noticed it had several shelves full of bottles, and other miscellaneous containers, not to mention a couple of bookshelves featuring rather unusual volumes, and a few other various surprises.

"What a weird looking room, it looks almost like something from an old horror movie" Dottie quipped, noticing the room's rather odd-looking décor and contents.

"How so Dottie?" Larry asked.

"Well, it almost reminds me of a room that might belong to a witch or something; plus it feels a lot like something that might have a lot of items that might be used for black magic" Dottie replied, albeit with a bit of dread in her voice.

"Well, Mr. Brown mentioned to us that he was a master of black magic from the dark ages, so it's entirely possible" Larry remarked.

"I figured as much, although I would like to know one thing" Dottie replied.

"What's that Dottie?" Larry asked.

"I wonder if Maldor or whoever uses this room has Eye of Newt or whatever" Dottie responded.

"Eye of Newt? Why would you be curious about something like that Dottie?" Larry inquired.

"Well, I've read that a lot of witches carry that and I'm just curious whether Maldor has some" Dottie replied.

"Dottie, I don't think Maldor has any use for Eye of Newt or anything that any witches would use; although, I'm a bit worried that whatever he has could be used against us, and possibly to stop us from leaving here" Larry explained.

"To tell the truth, I'm a bit worried too Larry; I mean this guy is much worse then any garden variety crook, I mean the villains we usually capture are bad, but this Maldor creep is a thousand times worse then any smuggler, bank robber or counterfeiter" Dottie replied.

"True, very true; you know, if this room does look like something a witch would use, maybe there's something we can use against that creep Maldor, maybe even the Wonder Wand" Larry responded.

"Yeah; you know, that's entirely possible Larry and we might just find the wand in here after all" Dottie replied.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's check around in here and see what we can find," Larry answered emphatically.

"Right" Dottie replied, as she and the brown haired adolescent detective began searching the mysterious room for clues, not realizing that as they searched, they were being watched by a pair of human eyes that had replaced the eyes of a strange painting of a man in a black cape, which hung on a nearby wall.

Meanwhile downstairs, Pepper and D.D. were deep within the reaches of the lower portion of the castle, and were in the midst of their own search for the mysterious Wonder Wand, which seemed to be very important to the Clue Club's current mystery, not to mention if it was found by the intrepid group of sleuths would give them a major leg up against the evil Maldor and a possible way to send the villain back to where he came from.

"Pepper, do you think that Maldor character is still in the castle somewhere?" D.D. asked, while he and the blonde haired sleuth walked down the corridor, all the while hoping that dark wizard had made himself scarce and wouldn't bother the pair again.

"D.D., why do you have to ask such dumb questions?" Pepper answered with her own question, albeit with an annoyed look on her face.

"I don't get it, what's so dumb about what I asked?" D.D. responded.

"For your information, it was dumb because when you usually ask questions like that, it means that the villain is usually nearby, and then we have to run for our lives" Pepper replied, still with an annoyed look on her face.

"Oh come on Pepper, do you really think things are that simple? Like it's some kind of formula and the bad guys chase us, just like that?" D.D. asked, snapping his fingers together while he uttered the last part of his statement.

"When you put it that way D.D.: Yes!" Pepper declared.

"I guess that answers my question" D.D. replied, somewhat shell shocked at what his blonde haired companion had told him.

"Beyond any words that anyone could ever say; now let's just forget about that for now and find that Wonder Wand before anything happens to us" Pepper replied.

"Right" D.D. responded.

So with that, the blonde haired young adult and her bespectacled companion continued wandering down the hallway in search of clues as to the Wonder Wand's whereabouts, while trying to avoid the horned, purple and black cloak clad first sprit from the demonic Chest of Demons, which Pepper and D.D. had a hand in opening, thereby releasing untold terrors upon the world.

However, while the two detectives searched among the cobwebs, dust and other related knick knacks and junk among the various rooms in the corridor, a sinister presence began to make itself known, and prepared to give Pepper and D.D. the fright of their lives and most likely the biggest fright of their detective careers.

While they searched the corridor for clues, the black hearted horned demon who practiced black magic for fun stepped slowly but stealthily behind the twosome, but of course as what usually happened when Pepper and D.D. had to deal with monsters or ghosts, said creature, villain or foe was unseen by the two of them, at least for the moment.

Soon however, the two teenage detectives were going to have company, and not just company but the worst kind of company, specifically the demonic Maldor, who at the moment was still right behind Pepper and D.D., still sight unseen; a few seconds later, the blonde haired female investigator and her brown haired companion noticed that there was a rather large shadow on the floor, which made them nervous as anyone could be who was in their situation.

"P-Pepper" D.D. remarked, teeth chattering as he spoke.

"What is it D.D.?" Pepper inquired, sounding quite annoyed with her companion.

"I t-think somebody's behind us" D.D. replied, sounding as nervous as someone could be in his position.

"Oh come on D.D., how could anybody be behind us?" Pepper asked, sounding as if she didn't quite believe the bespectacled young man.

"I'm serious Pepper, someone is behind us, I'm sure of it" D.D. replied, raising his voice a few octaves as he spoke.

"Oh, just forget it; let's say there is someone behind us, what are we going to do about it?" Pepper asked.

"Let's see who it is first, then we can figure out what to do afterwards" D.D. replied.

"Are you absolutely sure about this D.D?" Pepper questioned.

"Of course I'm sure Pepper, if we know who or what is behind us and who or what is making that shadow, we can figure out what to do about him, or it, or whatever" D.D. replied.

"What if it's Maldor?" Pepper asked.

"Come on, what are the chances of that happening? I mean would Maldor dare show his face with me here?" D.D. responded with a question of his own.

"Well, let's find out" Pepper replied.

With those words, Pepper and D.D. both turned around at the same time to see just who, or rather what was making the very mysterious shadow that was displayed on the floor; however, as they turned around to face the person or thing making said shadow, they immediately wished they hadn't done anything, which especially included turning around to see who was following them and who was making the shadow.

Because as they turned around, Pepper and D.D. found that the person following them wasn't quite a person at all, it was in point of fact the one, the only, the first ghost from the infamous Chest Of Demons, Maldor The Malevolent, complete with white horns, black and purple cloak, and last but not least, his black magic; as he stood now in front of Pepper and D.D., it became apparent that the two of them had really bitten of more then they could chew, and that they were going to be in a load of trouble very soon.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Two of my meddling guests, still trying to find the Wonder Wand no doubt" Maldor said, chuckling evilly as he faced the two sleuths; while the blonde haired young woman and her companion watched Maldor, the pair of detectives could see that as he stared them down, it was as if they were looking at pure evil, because it was as close to pure, unadulterated evil that the two of them had ever encountered.

"W-we're not afraid of you M-Maldor" D.D. said, with his lower lip trembling and looking incredibly nervous as he stood his ground against the devilish wizard.

"We're not?" Pepper asked, somewhat confused at her companion's statement, although a few moments later the brown haired detective nudged her in the arm, which meant that he wanted her to agree with him.

"Oh yeah, we're not afraid of you Maldor" the blonde haired young woman said as she confirmed D.D.'s statement.

"So, you're not afraid of me eh? Well, after I get done with the two of you, you'll both be very afraid of me, so much so that I will begin making appearances in your nightmares when you sleep" Maldor said with a chuckle, as he advanced closer and closer to Pepper and D.D., almost getting up close to their faces, so much so that the two teens could smell the evil wizard's breath, which was pretty bad.

"Ugh, somebody needs a breath mint, and now" Pepper replied.

"How dare you! I am Maldor the Malevolent, master of black magic and the dark arts! I do not need any breath mint!" Maldor declared, glaring at the two sleuths as he spoke.

"Well, why don't I go get my purse from the Clue Car and I can get you one okay? Come on D.D. let's split!" Pepper said, taking the young man's hand before she and her companion began running down the hallway, leaving Maldor in the dust.

"Blast you meddling mortals! I will find you two, and when I do my vengeance will be great and terrible!" Maldor declared as he ran after the two sleuths, who by this point had managed to give the black magic user the slip. After running for several minutes, the two sleuths had found themselves inside a room filled with several drawers and other similar items, including pots and pans and a range.

Once they closed the door behind them, and after they made sure there was no one coming after them, especially Maldor, Pepper and D.D. realized that they were safe from harm, and they were able to survey their settings; as they inspected the room they noticed that it featured a large stove, as well as various pots and pans, and what looked to be cupboards above it

"Hmm… looks like this might be a good place to hide from that horned creep Maldor" Pepper remarked.

"Yeah, looks that way to me too" D.D. replied.

"I wonder just what room of the castle we're in anyway?" Pepper said, posing the question to her companion.

"Well, judging by all the cooking utensils and stuff like that in here, I would say we're in the kitchen" D.D. answered.

"Brilliant deduction Sherlock, what's your next brilliant thought?" Pepper replied, sounding somewhat annoyed with her fellow sleuth.

"Knock it off Pepper and let me say something" D.D. responded.

"All right, I'll stop for a few minutes; now, what did you want to say?" Pepper asked.

"Simply this: since Maldor didn't follow us and it appears that we've got some time to relax, why don't we look for the Wonder Wand in here?" D.D. explained.

"You know D.D. that actually makes sense; in fact that might be the most sensible thing you've said in quite a while" Pepper replied.

"Thank you Pepper, I think" D.D. answered, still unsure of what his companion really meant.

"You're welcome; now, let's do what you said and start looking around here for that Wonder Wand" Pepper replied.

"Right" D.D. agreed.

So with that, Pepper and D.D. began searching every nook and cranny of the kitchen until they found what they were looking for, mainly the mystical item known as the Wonder Wand of Zagras, which they were desperately hoping to locate in order to combat the evil and black magic of the sinister wizard Maldor.

While the blonde haired young woman and her companion were searching through the Wonder Wand, outside the castle the two canines of the Clue Club were having a major tree problem. Unfortunately for them, this problem wasn't going to be simply solved by calling a tree trimmer, or someone else who usually specialized in getting rid of problem trees or plants, this quandary was going to take some major fast thinking on the part of Woofer and Wimper, and judging by the way Maldor's monster trees were advancing on the pair of canines, they were going to have to do their thinking soon.

"Keep running Wimper old buddy, those trees are right behind us!" Woofer exclaimed as he ran for his life down the path that led from the castle back towards the forest, which coincidentally enough was full of Maldor's handy work.

"I'm running Woofer, I'm running!" Wimper added, following his fellow canine close behind.

Despite trying to run like Olympic track champions, Woofer and Wimper were unfortunately not having much luck in escaping from the monster trees that seemed to be almost everywhere that the two canines went as they ran away from the castle.

Finally, after running from the sinister monster trees for about ten minutes, although it seemed longer then that, Woofer and Wimper were able to find a clearing, where it seemed like they would be safe, and in fact they were safe for the moment, unless the trees had very good senses of smell, which was entirely possible.

"Phew, you know something Wimp old buddy, I think we've lost those creepy trees" Woofer said with a sigh of relief, while he and the other canine member of the Clue Club hid behind a tree.

"I hope so Woofer, I don't want those trees to find us and make us into dog food" Wimper replied.

"Now why would you think those trees would want to turn us into dog food if they find us Wimper?" Woofer asked.

"Because we're dogs, and maybe those trees are angry of what we did to some of their pals in the past, so maybe they'll try and turn us into dog food" Wimper replied, nervous as ever.

"Wimper, I don't think those trees are angry of what we did to some trees in the past, I mean after all we're dogs, and sometimes we have to do something like that, it's a normal thing" Woofer remarked.

"I know that Woofer, but what if those trees find us, then what are we going to do?" Wimper asked.

"Just leave it to old Woofer, Wimp old buddy; I'll see you through like a lighthouse in a storm, all you have to do is just follow me" Woofer replied with a chuckle.

"Well, if you say so Woofer" Wimper responded.

"Trust me Wimper, I'll never steer you wrong" Woofer replied.

"I just hope you don't" Wimper said, still unsure of what to say to his comrade.

After having a somewhat heart to heart, or canine to canine chat as the case may be, Woofer and Wimper peeked out from behind a large Fir tree and checked to make sure if the coast was clear, or the path was clear in this case; having made sure that everything was fine and dandy, the two of them walked out into the clearing and started walking towards the castle, to reconnect with their friends.

"See Wimper old buddy, I told you, we're no match for those dumb trees; believe you and me, I think Maldor has gotten smart and he knows Woofer the Great won't scare easily" Woofer remarked with a chuckle, while rubbing his hand on his furry chest in a triumphant fashion as he spoke.

"Dumb trees huh?" a strange voice said suddenly from an unseen place.

"Wimper, did you say something?" Woofer asked, turning towards his fellow canine with a partially confused and partially annoyed look on his face.

"I didn't say anything, it must have been your imagination" Wimper replied.

"Well if that's my imagination, then it must have been a loud imagination," Woofer stated.

Still confused about what was going on, Woofer and Wimper decided to shrug off the mysterious voice and continued to walk through the clearing towards the castle; however, the two canines were about to uncover who, or rather what had spoken to them very soon, actually maybe it was going to be sooner then they thought, as the mysterious voice began speaking again.

"So, you think we're dumb trees huh?" said the mysterious voice.

"Yeah, and you think you're brave enough to defeat us?" asked another voice.

Woofer and Wimper's faces then changed to a look of pure unadulterated fright and nervousness as they tried to figure out where the voices were coming from and who was speaking to them; not realizing if these voices were friends or foes, Woofer and Wimper decided to look behind them to see who was conversing with them, or attempting to converse with them, but when they did, they immediately wished they hadn't.

"W-Woofer" Wimper said, teeth chattering and knees knocking as he spoke.

"I s-see them Wimper, I see them" Woofer replied, looking and sounding equally nervous.

The canine with white fur, black spots and a red Sherlock Holmes style hat, and his companion with brown fur and black spots had a good reason to be nervous and jumpy as once they turned around they saw two very large, and very frightening monster trees, who were attempting to reach out and grab the pair of canines, which is something neither of them were hoping would happen.

"So, you two think trees are dumb huh?" asked one of the trees.

Woofer and Wimper simply looked up and couldn't say a single word to the trees in their defense; although they could talk, they simply were dumbstruck and frozen with fright to their spots, they couldn't move or couldn't breath, nothing came out of their mouths and they sure as heck couldn't think of a plan of attack, partly because the two trees were so menacing, no one, no matter how brave could even fight back against them.

"Just so you know, we aren't dumb at all" one of the trees remarked.

"Yeah, we'll tear you limb from limb, and then we'll turn you into toothpicks" the other tree added.

Still Woofer and Wimper couldn't say anything in defense of themselves, and still they couldn't fight back against the trees that were a few feet away from them, so without any way to defend themselves, or without any way at all to say anything to the two trees, Woofer and Wimper decided there was only one way to get away from the two monsters that were following, which was something that they did almost better then anything, well anything other then mystery solving.

"Wimper, I think w-we better get the heck out of here!" Woofer declared with a great amount of terror in his voice.

"I t-think you're right Woofer, let's go!" Wimper replied.

So with that, Woofer and Wimper ran for their lives, with the two monster trees of Maldor's following closely behind, stomping the ground with every foot they moved; the monstrous trees steps seemed to move the very ground Woofer and Wimper were walking on, which made it feel as if the two of them were surfing, except for the fact that the two of them were miles away from the ocean or any water, except for the waterfall that the two of them almost drowned in along with the rest of the Clue Club.

About ten minutes or so passed and Woofer and Wimper had apparently managed to escape the sinister trees that served Maldor the wizard, or so it would seem; but for the moment as the two canine sleuths walked up to the castle doors, they realized that maybe, just maybe they wouldn't have to worry about any monsters or ghosts for the rest of their time at the castle.

"Well Wimper old boy, it looks like we've gotten past those creepy trees" Woofer remarked.

"Yep, it sure looks like that to me" Wimper replied.

"Since we're rid of those creepy trees, let's get back in the castle and find the rest of the gang" Woofer stated.

Woofer and Wimper then walked up the stone path that led to the castle, looking quite relieved that nothing was chasing them, and that the monster trees seemed to be far behind and losing ground on the pair of canines with every second; seeing that the two monster trees weren't causing much of a problem for them, the two canines seemed secure in their walk, but sooner rather then later, they would find that the first spirit from the Chest of Demons had other plans, for them and for the rest of the gang.

While Woofer and Wimper continued towards the castle, Larry and Dottie continued looking through the room that they had found upstairs, and were continued to be surprised by its contents; in this case, the two of them found all manner of magical items, such as spell books, trinkets and amulets, which they figured could be useful against Maldor and his army of evil plants, trees and creatures.

They had been looking through the room for about fifteen minutes when they decided to grab a few books and amulets from the room, before leaving and heading back into the upstairs corridor; soon they had made their way through the corridor and down the stairs, where they decided to rendezvous with their friends, both to see if they found the Wonder Wand, and to also see if they had managed to avoid Maldor and were still in one piece.

While the youngest member of the Clue Club and the unofficial leader of the group looked for the rest of the gang, two members of the group, specifically the blonde haired member and the bespectacled brown haired member, continued their search through the kitchen for any signs of Zagras's Wonder Wand; although Pepper was looking high and low for the wand, D.D. was in fact looking for something to eat, which annoyed his female companion to no end.

"D.D., what are you doing?" Pepper asked, standing with her hands on her hips in the center of the room.

"Doing what people usually do in a kitchen, trying to find something to eat; I haven't anything since dinner last night and I'm famished" D.D. replied, stomach rumbling a bit as he talked to the blonde haired young woman.

"D.D., how can you think about food at a time like this? We've got to find that Wonder Wand before Maldor gets to it and uses it to destroy the world and us" Pepper explained.

"Oh, OK; I guess you're right" D.D. replied; so, having been denied a chance to look for something to snack on, the bespectacled young man resumed searching for the mysterious Wonder Wand. Although the young man's thoughts were more on food and eating then finding the Wand, he reluctantly picked up his search once again, although very soon looking for food would help he and Pepper find the mystical item.

"_Hmm… if there's a range in here, there's got to be some soup or something to eat, not to mention a spoon; even if it's just cereal and milk, it would still be something_" D.D. thought to himself.

The young bespectacled detective then began looking through some of the kitchen's drawers for utensils to use just in case he did find food somewhere in the kitchen, which wasn't very likely, although you never know in these cases; after a few minutes of searching, D.D. opened up a drawer that was chock full of spoons, knives, forks and other utensils and was quite pleased with himself for the moment.

"_Well, at least if I do find food, they'll be plenty of things I can use to eat it with; I wonder if there's any soup spoons in here?"_ D.D. wondered as he continued searching; however, soon he found himself pulling out a very unusual looking spoon from the drawer, at least it looked like a spoon, to be truthful it didn't look like anything the young man had ever seen.

In this case, the spoon looked to be completely made of gold, with a large red jewel in the area that would usually be reserved for putting food in, and three smaller jewels on the handle; D.D. was a bit confused at first and was about ready to place the spoon back in the drawer he got it from, although as he held the item in his hand, Pepper noticed what he was about ready to do and stopped him by quickly running over to where he was standing.

"D.D. don't you dare put that spoon back!" Pepper declared.

"How come Pepper? I mean it looks like an ordinary soup spoon to me" D.D. replied.

"That shows what you know Sherlock, because it's not a soup spoon" Pepper remarked.

"Okay, if it's not a soup spoon, what is it?" D.D. asked, sounding impatient with the blonde haired young woman.

"Hmm… it doesn't look like any soup spoon I've ever seen… and it has jewels on it and it's made of gold to boot… wait, that's it: that's the Wonder Wand of Zagras!" Pepper replied, before finally putting the pieces together and exclaiming in delight.

"This is the Wonder Wand? Huh, it certainly lives up to its description" D.D. remarked.

"Sure does; well now that we've found the wand, let's find Dottie, Larry, Woofer and Wimper; because now that we've found the Wonder Wand, we have a fighting chance against Maldor, and we have a really good chance to stop him once and for all" Pepper replied.

"Good idea Pepper, let's get going" D.D. remarked.

With that, D.D. and Pepper left the kitchen and headed back into the downstairs corridor; however, unfortunately for them Larry and Dottie after walking down the stairs were in the exact same corridor and within a few minutes ran right smack dab into their friends and fellow sleuths path, which resulted in one heck of a collision, not to mention each of them tumbling to the ground as a result of said collision.

"Wow, that was one heck of a collision, is everybody okay?" Larry asked, brushing himself off as he stood up from the floor.

"Yeah, I think so" Dottie remarked, checking to make sure if she had suffered any bumps or bruises, which she hadn't.

"Despite being a bit dusty it looks like I'm still in one piece," Pepper stated.

"Me too, and it looks like the Wonder Wand is still in one piece as well" D.D. commented, noticing that the blonde young woman was still holding the mystical item.

"The Wonder Wand? You mean you guys found it?" Larry asked, his eyes opening wide in astonishment as he spoke.

"Sure did, take a look" Pepper replied, bringing out the mysterious magical artifact for all to see.

"Good work you two, now we have two weapons against Maldor" Larry remarked.

"Two? What was the other one?" D.D. asked.

"Simple, we found some magical artifacts in a room upstairs; spell books, amulets, everything" Dottie explained.

"Terrific sis, do you and Larry still have the stuff you found?" Pepper inquired.

"Sure do sis, why?" Dottie asked.

"Because the more things that we can use against Maldor, the better; which reminds me, where's Woofer and Wimper?" Pepper said, before her attention turned to the two canine members of the group.

"Good question Pepper, although if I had to guess I would say they're still outside the castle; they haven't came back yet, and we haven't seen them, which means they're still somewhere outside" Larry replied.

"Uh oh, that also means they might be in trouble" D.D. remarked.

"Hmm… you might be right D.D., which means we've got to get outside and see if we can find them; and now that we've got the Wonder Wand and that magic stuff, we have a good chance of trapping that creep in the Chest of Demons" Larry replied.

"Yeah, come on let's get outside and help Woofer and Wimper and catch ourselves a ghost" Dottie responded.

"Very well put Dottie, very well put" Larry replied.

With that, Larry, Dottie, Pepper and D.D. made a beeline for the castle doors, but as they got there they saw that they were closed and locked shut.

However, as the group of sleuths spotted the controls for the drawbridge, a light clicked on in D.D.'s brain and he walked over to the controls in order to attempt to find the right switch to open the drawbridge. After he did so, he tried various switches until finding the right one, which enabled the group to exit the castle where they saw Woofer and Wimper waiting for them, who by this point had moved onto a grassy area next to the drawbridge in order to wait for their human companions.

After the group was back together, Larry realized that it was time for the group to use what they had found and learned in the castle to trap Maldor once and for all in the Chest of Demons; walking out from beyond the drawbridge back into the forest, the Clue Club found that each member of their group was feeling ever vigilant and looking as if they needed to keep eyes open every second that they were in the forest, because after all, Maldor the Malevolent was still out there somewhere and he wasn't going to be easy to trap.

The four mortal sleuths and their two canine members continued walking through the forest, having already met a few of the creatures that Maldor was capable of conjuring up; but soon, the Clue Club, who were still learning a lot about real ghosts and supernatural spirits were about to find that Maldor was going to spring and pose a major challenge to them, which could possibly be the last challenge they would ever face, partly due to how horrifying it was going to be and that they might not survive it.

A few minutes more passed and as the Clue Club walked through the forest, they could now feel the very ground beneath them beginning to rumble and shake tremendously; in addition, there seemed to be large dark clouds hovering over head and thunderous bolts of lightning flashing across the sky silhouetting the clouds.

Finally as the group of sleuths looked around the forest and then up at the sky in awe at the power that nature was displaying, they could see that only about five or ten feet away from them, there was a large cloud of purple smoke appearing, which made the group of four mortals and two canines very nervous; suddenly the smoke vanished, and in the tradition of some of the great magicians in history, Maldor the Malevolent made his entrance, which was going to be something that the Clue Club wouldn't forget for as long as they all lived.

"Well, what do we have here? The mortals I encountered earlier, and their little dogs as well; so, did you meddling kids like my little light show?" Maldor asked, laughing evilly as he spoke.

"No Maldor, quite frankly we didn't, and I think it's high time you go back to where you came from, mainly the Chest of Demons, where you won't hurt anyone ever again" Larry replied, glaring at Maldor as he spoke, almost as if he was engaged in a stare down with the sinister wizard.

"Oh please, not that chest again; you mortals really have a one track mind, don't you? You think you'll trap me and put me back in the chest, but in reality I am far more powerful then you can ever imagine, and I am unstoppable!" Maldor said, punctuating his statement by using his magic to hurl a lightning bolt at the gang, which they ducked with ease; however the lightning managed to hit a grassy area next to the castle, thankfully not causing any damage to the group or to the castle.

"Sorry Maldor, but you're going to have to do better then that to destroy us, especially when we have this!" Pepper said as she held up the golden, shimmering magical artifact that she found in the kitchen for all, including Maldor to see.

"The Wonder Wand! You meddling kids have the wand!" Maldor declared angrily.

"Yes we do, and we also borrowed some magic books and amulets from the castle, which means we have abilities when combined are more then enough to take you on" Dottie replied, holding a spell book aloft and looking as if she was about ready to open it and cast an incantation.

"Really now, do you mortals think you know anything about magic to even have a chance at defeating me? Even with the books of Zagras, who's always been an old fool to begin with" Maldor remarked, arms folded as he spoke.

"Oh really? Well, why don't we see about that Maldor" Dottie said as she handed the spell book to Larry, who then picked a page and then read an incantation, which caused him to fly backwards and land on his backside several feet away near a tree.

"Blasted mortals! So it would appear you can cast magic spells to use against me; but those and the Wonder Wand will do you no good, and as soon as I figure out a way to get back at the six of you, I will have my vengeance and I will destroy all of you!" Maldor growled as he slowly stood up; clearly the Clue Club had staggered him and with the Chest of Demons and Wonder Wand in tow, they were hoping to finish the job before Maldor could finish them.

"Not before we destroy you Maldor; just try something, we dare you" Pepper replied, arms folded as she spoke.

"Very well, I will" the evil wizard stated as he looked around the forest for something to help him in his quest to destroy the gang; a few moments later he decided to use his powers to the fullest and as a result he grew to a size that would make Godzilla or King Kong blush, which made the Clue Club very nervous and very scared.

"So, what do you think of my powers now?" Maldor asked in a somewhat deep voice that caused the very Earth to tremble and quake underneath them yet again; however, the Clue Club didn't seem to be phased at all by this and as Maldor stood towering almost fifty feet in size in front of them, it appeared to him that the group of sleuths had a look on each of their faces that said more in body language then they could ever tell the fiendish wizard.

"Just what are you six planning? Usually when I see victims with that look on their faces, they're planning something, so spill, what are you meddlers up to?" Maldor growled, while noticing the Clue Club were whispering to one another in a huddle.

"Well, you're right Maldor, we are planning something; but we aren't going to tell you what it is" Dottie replied.

"All right, just what are you meddlers planning?" Maldor asked.

"Simple, we all had a bit of a wager going, and we all agreed that there's no way you could transform yourself into a toad like a lot of the witches and wizards that we've seen and heard of; I mean a lot of them try and turn people into frogs or toads, so we all said that there's no chance you could" Larry replied.

"Oh really? Well, let me just say I can transform myself into a toad, or a frog as the case may be; after all, I am a powerful wizard, and can shape shift into many varied and powerful forms, other then my own; so, even though I would rather use my magic to defeat all of you forever, I will indulge you in your silly little request" Maldor explained.

Suddenly the great and powerful wizard began shrinking down from his gigantic King Kong size, almost deflating like a balloon before the very eyes of the Clue Club; finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Maldor emerged from his transformation as a small horned toad, which seemed to make the group of young sleuths and their canines quite happy, as they now had an opportunity to capture the wizard without having to deal with any of his magic any more.

"OK Dottie, let's get out the Chest of Demons and capture this toad" Larry remarked, as the pig tailed young girl brought out the very familiar and very frightening looking container known as the Chest of Demons.

Even as a horned toad, seeing the Chest of Demons must have scared the wizard/reptile because as he witnessed the young detectives take out the strange looking box, he attempted to begin hopping away from the group in order to stay free for a while; however, the members of the Clue Club were more then prepared for this and began chasing after the Maldor toad, before managing to catch up with him and a few moments later Dottie opened the strange container and scooped up the evil wizard/toad before he could hop any further.

"Good work Dottie, now Maldor's boxed up in the Chest of Demons" Larry stated.

"Where he'll hopefully stay for all eternity" Zagras said as he and Princess Esmerelda had ventured from the castle and now stood outside the great building to meet the Clue Club as they had walked back towards the ancient fortress and were now talking to the wizard and the princess who were quite happy about the wizard being captured.

"One can only hope, one can only hope" Dottie replied.

"Believe me, I don't see how or why anyone would want to take on that creepy wizard unless they had to or were forced to; I just hope the Chest of Demons isn't opened again by anyone after we catch all the ghosts because I don't envy anyone who would have to put up with all this" D.D. added.

"Well, at least we've captured one ghost, however there's still twelve left to go, and we've still got a long way to go to capture them all" Dottie remarked.

"Right Dottie, but even if we have to go to the ends of the Earth to capture the last twelve spirits from the chest, we will catch them all, no matter what it takes and no matter how long it takes" Larry replied.

"Right, because we're the Clue Club, and we can handle real ghosts and monster just as well as we can handle any crooks that we caught during our mysteries" Dottie responded.

The members of the Clue Club, both human and canine then agreed that the 13 ghosts from the Demon Chest were going to be one heck of a challenge for them, but even that didn't seem to phase the group of young people and their two bloodhounds, because after all the Clue Club had released the spirits from the mysterious container, and they didn't plan on resting until the world was safe from ghosts, no matter what shape or size.

Overall, as they stood in front of the castle watching the magnificent forest after it returned to its natural form, the four young sleuths and two bloodhounds that composed the Clue Club wondered what kind of adventures they would have en route to capturing the rest of the fiendish ghosts from the Chest of Demons.

But whatever adventure they would encounter or wherever they would have to travel to capture the rest of the ghosts, each of them knew that they would succeed in their mission and that even in the field of detective work, tomorrow was always another day, and a bright, sunny one at that.

Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who likes my stories for sticking with me while I write this or type this fic as the case may be; while this might be a bit different from what the original 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo was, this fic features different characters from a different show, so I took and am planning on taking some creative liberties with the stories. I am not giving up on this story at all, however during parts of writing this fic I have had headaches (as a matter of fact I have one right now), but I have managed to play through the pain for the most part and continue writing.


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